The logo for MiniMax Group Inc. on a smartphone in Shanghai, China.
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Shares of China-based AI startup MiniMax Group doubled on its first day of trading in Hong Kong on Friday, becoming the second major Chinese developer of large language models to go public.
The company raised 4.8 billion Hong Kong dollars ($620 million) in its IPO, outperforming its local rival Zhipu AI, which had listed in Hong Kong just one day earlier and rose a modest 13% on its debut.
MiniMax shares closed at HK$345, up 109% from its offer price of HK$165.
Both MiniMax and Zhipu are part of China’s so-called “AI tigers”— startups building large language models to rival American AI giants like OpenAI, which they’ve now beaten to going public.
Founded in 2022 and backed by investors such as Alibaba Group and Tencent Holdings, MiniMax specializes in AI applications, including chatbots, image generation and video synthesis.
Its founders, Yan Junjie, the company’s chief executive officer, and Yun Yeyi, its chief operating officer, previously worked at SenseTime, a long-time player in China’s AI space.
MiniMax’s market debut comes as Chinese AI-related firms ramp up fundraising efforts to compete with U.S. rivals and navigate Washington’s export curbs on advanced chips used for AI training to China.
According to the company’s prospectus, it served over 200 million cumulative users across more than 200 countries and regions as of September last year.
It also reported revenue of $53.4 million in the nine months ended Sept. 30, 2025, up about 174% from a year earlier, though the company still posted a net loss of $512 million over the same period.
MiniMax said most of its revenue comes from subscriptions and in-app purchases for its AI products. It added that it remains in a “nascent stage in terms of monetization and commercialization,” after years focused on developing its foundational models.
Minimax said it plans to use IPO proceeds for continued research and development.
