Chinese AI firm MiniMax set to price Hong Kong IPO at top of range, sources say

By Kane Wu and Yantoultra Ngui

HONG KONG/SINGAPORE, Jan 5 (Reuters) – MiniMax Group is expected to price its Hong Kong IPO at the top of a marketing range and raise $538 million, three people with knowledge of the deal said, in the latest public market debut by a Chinese AI startup amid an investor frenzy.

MiniMax launched bookbuilding of the IPO on December 31 at a price range of HK$151 to HK$165 ($19.39-$21.19) apiece.

At the higher end, the IPO would value MiniMax at about $6.5 billion.

Its books have been oversubscribed multiple times, said the sources, who declined to be named as the information was confidential.

Founded in early 2022 by former SenseTime executive Yan Junjie, MiniMax develops multimodal AI models, such as MiniMax M1, Hailuo-02, Speech-02 and Music-01, which can process text, audio, images, video and music.

MiniMax is scheduled to price the offering on January 6, but one of the sources said it looks to close bookbuilding for the institutional tranche by 5 p.m. Hong Kong time on Monday. The shares will start trading on January 9.

The company did not immediately reply to a Reuters request for comment.

Bloomberg first reported on Monday the planned IPO price.

Six Chinese companies are scheduled to debut in Hong Kong this week. Zhipu AI, chipmaker Iluvatar CoreX and surgical robotics maker Shenzhen Edge Medical will start trading on January 8, while MiniMax and two others will debut on January 9.

MiniMax’s rival Zhipu AI fixed its offer price at HK$116.20 per share to raise HK$4.3 billion, according to its December 30 prospectus.

STRONG DEBUTS

A slew of Chinese AI and chip companies have gone public in the past month, with their shares popping on debut and sustaining gains versus their IPO prices, signalling strong investor interest as China accelerates efforts to strengthen domestic alternatives in response to U.S. curbs on technology exports.

AI chip designer Shanghai Biren Technology closed up 76% in its Hong Kong debut on January 2 and is still up over 70% from its IPO price on Monday.

“The Hong Kong IPO market will remain vibrant, with IPO funds raised anticipated to reach HK$350 billion in 2026, supported by listings of high-end manufacturing and tech companies,” said Eddie Wong, PwC Hong Kong Capital Markets Leader, in a Monday briefing.

“Despite uncertainties in the global geopolitical landscape, the demand for international financing by Chinese enterprises, and investors’ interest in high-quality Chinese companies remain strong,” he said.

Seventeen companies submitted listing applications in 2026 so far, HKEX filings showed.

Chinese internet search leader Baidu said on Friday its AI chip unit Kunlunxin has filed a Hong Kong IPO application, confirming a Reuters report in early December.

($1 = 7.7878 Hong Kong dollars)

(Reporting by Kane Wu in Hong Kong and Yantoultra Ngui in Singapore; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala and Muralikumar Anantharaman)