China’s AI video race is moving beyond silent, short-form clips — and MiniMax wants to compete on quality, sound, and price.
The Shanghai-based company has unveiled H3, a multimodal model that it says can generate videos lasting up to 15 seconds in 2K resolution with native stereo audio. H3 also supports video editing and motion transfer using combinations of text, image, video, and audio references.
MiniMax is promising downloadable model weights and generation costs below those of competing systems. However, some of the technology required to reproduce its highest-quality output reportedly will remain proprietary.
Founded in 2022, MiniMax is one of China’s so-called “AI tigers,” a group of heavily funded startups competing with domestic technology giants and US AI companies. The company went public in Hong Kong earlier this year.
According to Artificial Analysis, MiniMax’ H3 ranks first globally for video editing among tested models, while placing behind Google’s Gemini Omni Flash in text-to-video tasks and behind both Gemini Omni Flash and ByteDance’s Seedance 2.0 in image-to-video generation.
Open — but not entirely
While MiniMax is promoting H3 as an open-weight model, the initial release does not include every component.
Reports indicate that key technologies, including the company's 2K upscaling module and its prompt interpretation system, remain proprietary. Local deployments are also limited to lower-resolution output without those components.
MiniMax said the model was designed to support a broad range of AI hardware, including Chinese-made chips, reflecting a wider push within China's AI industry to reduce reliance on U.S. semiconductor technology.
The company said the downloadable weights will be released under the MiniMax Community License, allowing free non-commercial use and commercial use for organizations with annual revenue below $20 million, subject to license terms.
Competing with ByteDance and Google
The release comes as competition among Chinese video AI developers intensifies. ByteDance drew attention earlier this year with Seedance 2.0 and released its newer Seedance 2.5 model the same day as H3, while Kuaishou has also entered the market with Kling 3.0.
MiniMax is trying to differentiate itself through a combination of lower pricing and an open-weight strategy, an approach that has become increasingly popular among Chinese AI developers seeking broader adoption and faster ecosystem growth.
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