Chinese AI startup MiniMax Group has delivered a spectacular trading debut, with shares soaring as much as 100% above their offering price in Hong Kong.
The Shanghai-based company launched at HK$165 per share and reached peaks of HK$330, valuing the firm at approximately $13 billion. Retail investors went wild for the stock, oversubscribing shares by more than 1,159 times in what can only be described as pure market mania.
This explosive performance signals massive investor appetite for Chinese AI companies hitting public markets right now. The frenzy comes just one day after rival Zhipu gained 16% in its Hong Kong debut, following a $558 million IPO that made it the first of China’s “AI tigers” to go public.
Chinese AI tigers beat Silicon Valley
Something interesting is happening in global AI markets: Chinese companies are crushing their American counterparts in the race to go public. The remarkable debut of Zhipu marked a watershed moment for the industry, with the Beijing-based startup becoming the first major large language model company to complete an IPO.
Both MiniMax and Zhipu represent China’s AI tigers — startups building LLMs to compete directly with OpenAI and Anthropic. Yet while American AI giants like OpenAI and Anthropic are still working out their IPO plans, Chinese competitors are securing billions in public funding and establishing massive market valuations.
Consider this timing advantage: OpenAI converted its for-profit division into a public benefit corporation back in September 2025, while Anthropic hired a law firm to start the IPO process just last month, suggesting their public debuts could happen as early as this year. Meanwhile, Chinese firms are already trading and raising hundreds of millions.
MiniMax’s multimodal advantage
Founded in early 2022 by former SenseTime executive Yan Junjie, MiniMax operates as a hybrid foundation model company spanning both consumer and enterprise markets.
What distinguishes MiniMax from text-focused competitors? The Shanghai-based firm develops multimodal AI models including MiniMax M1, Hailuo-02, Speech-02, and Music-01, which can process text, audio, images, video, and music.
Growth metrics reveal a global phenomenon in motion. Monthly active users skyrocketed from 3.1 million in 2023 to 27.6 million by September 2025, demonstrating rapid worldwide adoption. Even more surprising: only 26% of MiniMax’s revenue comes from China; 20% from the US, with the remainder from Singapore and other markets. This indicates it’s a global LLM provider, not a purely domestic Chinese champion.
The brutal economics behind the euphoria
Despite the market euphoria, MiniMax’s financials expose the ruthless economics of competing in the AI arms race. Financial data shows the company posted losses of $211 million through September 2025, driven by infrastructure and research costs.
The spending reveals an industry burning cash at unprecedented rates. MiniMax spent over $150 million on cloud bills in 2025, with R&D consuming approximately $250 million. That translates to $400 million annually just to stay competitive in the global AI race.
Revenue growth tells a different story altogether. MiniMax’s top line grew 130% comparing 2024 to the first nine months of 2025, from $30 million to $53 million. Yet gross margins remain at just 23%, despite MiniMax reducing inference costs by 45% over the past year.
This explosive debut suggests investors are willing to bet big on that future, even with current economics looking challenging.
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