MiniMax Group Inc. in smartphone in Shanghai, China. logo.
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China-based AI startup MiniMax surged 90% on its first day of trading in Hong Kong on Friday, becoming the second-largest 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 AIIt was listed in Hong Kong a day earlier and rose a modest 13% on its first day of trading.
MiniMax shares were last traded at HK$290.8 per share, compared with an offer price of HK$165.
Both MiniMax and Zhipu are part of China’s so-called “AI tigers” — startups building large language models to compete with American AI giants like OpenAI, which they have now won before going public.
Founded and supported in 2021 Alibaba Group and Tencent HoldingsMiniMax also specializes in AI applications, including chatbots, image generation and video synthesis.
Minimax said it will use the proceeds from the IPO for research and development.
The debut comes as Chinese AI-related firms step up fundraising efforts to compete with US rivals and navigate Washington’s export restrictions to China on advanced chips used to train AI.