The logo for MiniMax Group Inc. on a smartphone in Shanghai, China.
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China-based AI startup MiniMax surged as much as 90% 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 HK$4.8 billion ($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 first day of trade.
MiniMax shares were last trading at HK$290.8 per share, compared with the 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 2021 and backed by Alibaba Group and Tencent Holdings, MiniMax also specializes in AI applications, including chatbots, image generation and video synthesis.
Minimax said it would use the IPO proceeds for research and development.
The 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.
