Chinese AI firm MiniMax to launch Hong Kong IPO in early January
The firm develops multimodal AI models which can process text, audio, images, video and music
[HONG KONG/BEIJING] Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) firm MiniMax is seeking to launch a Hong Kong initial public offering (IPO) in early January.
It could raise as much as US$700 million, two sources – who declined to be named – said on Monday (Dec 22).
MiniMax said in a Hong Kong Stock Exchange filing on Dec 21 that it had passed the bourse’s listing hearing.
The offering size is not finalised, one of the sources said, as it would depend on market conditions and investor interest. Sources expect it to be at least US$500 million.
MiniMax declined to comment.
The company would be targeting a valuation of over US$4 billion in the float, sources had said in July.
The International Financing Review first reported on Monday that the company would launch its IPO in the week of Jan 5, and raise around US$600 million.
MiniMax is among the first batch of Chinese AI companies to seek a public listing in Hong Kong.
Other companies including Biren Technology, Shanghai Iluvatar CoreX Semiconductor and Zhipu AI could also be launching their offerings in the coming weeks, after securing a green light from regulators.
The rise of DeepSeek, China’s answer to ChatGPT, this year has boosted investor interest in domestic AI products, and in the sector.
Earlier this month, the IPOs of AI chip firms Moore Thread and MetaX were thousands of times oversubscribed. Share prices of both companies surged multiple times on their debut.
Founded in early 2022 by former SenseTime executive Yan Junjie, MiniMax has emerged as one of China’s prominent AI companies during the generative AI boom.
The company, backed by the Alibaba Group, develops multimodal AI models including MiniMax M1, Hailuo-02, Speech-02 and Music-01, which can process text, audio, images, video and music.
The firm said in the Sunday stock exchange filing that the monthly active user figures for its products had risen from 3.1 million in 2023 to 19.1 million in 2024, and to 27.6 million by the end of September 2025.
It posted an unaudited adjusted loss of US$186 million for the first nine months of 2025, compared with US$170 million for the same period in 2024, the filing showed. REUTERS
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