China’s AI startup MiniMax Group raises $619 million in Hong Kong IPO

Jan 8 (Reuters) – Chinese artificial intelligence startup MiniMax Group said on Thursday it raised HK$4.82 billion ($618.60 million) in its Hong Kong initial public offering after pricing shares at HK$165 each.

The company, one of the first large-language model developers in the country to seek a listing, sold 29.2 million shares in the IPO at the top end of its marketed range. It had previously offered to sell about 25.4 million shares.

Chinese AI and chip firms have flooded Hong Kong’s IPO market in recent weeks, with shares holding above their offer prices after debut, underscoring strong investor appetite as Beijing ramps up efforts to build homegrown tech in response to U.S. curbs on the sector.

MiniMax has secured large investments from Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and Mirae Asset Securities, among others, the company said in an exchange filing.

The firm launched its IPO on December 31, spearheading a slew of Hong Kong listings.

Hong Kong recorded its strongest IPO year in 2025 since 2021, with companies raising $36.5 billion from 114 new listings in the country, according to data compiled by LSEG.

MiniMax, founded in early 2022 by former SenseTime executive Yan Junjie, develops multimodal AI models that can generate text, audio, images, video and music.

Shares of the company are expected to begin trading on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Friday, the filing showed.

MiniMax said in December that the majority of the net IPO proceeds will be used for research and development over the next five years.

($1 = 7.7918 Hong Kong dollars)

(Reporting by Sherin Sunny & Rajasik Mukherjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi Aich and Shinjini Ganguli)