Chinese artificial intelligence start-up MiniMax made a strong debut on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Friday, with shares climbing 45% and valuing the firm at $6.5 billion.
The listing marks a turning point for the Shanghai-based company, which spent years in relative obscurity while rivals raced to clone ChatGPT.
Founded by Yan Junjie, MiniMax focused instead on building a multi-modal AI model, one capable of understanding and generating not just text, but also speech and video.
That long bet appears to be paying off. Since launching its flagship M2 model in late 2025, MiniMax says it has reached over 200 million users, powering tools from virtual avatars to the video-generation platform Hailuo.
Backed by heavyweights including Tencent, Alibaba, and Richard Li’s Pacific Century Group, the company has drawn attention from both China’s tech elite and Middle Eastern investors.
But like many in the sector, MiniMax remains loss-making, posting a $186 million deficit in the first nine months of 2025 due to steep computing costs. Despite rapid revenue growth, investors remain focused on its path to profitability.