MiniMax to Raise $538M in Hong Kong IPO at Top Price
MiniMax Group is set to price its Hong Kong initial public offering at the top of the marketed range, aiming to raise 538 million dollars and value the artificial intelligence startup at approximately 6.5 billion dollars. The Shanghai-based company has advised investors it will sell shares at 165 Hong Kong dollars apiece, reflecting strong demand from institutional investors across multiple regions.
The offering has attracted demand several times over the available shares, with participation from sovereign wealth funds and global long-only investors. MiniMax decided to close bookbuilding for the institutional tranche a day earlier than planned due to the overwhelming response. The company is backed by Alibaba Group and Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund.
Founded in early 2022 by former SenseTime executive Yan Junjie, MiniMax develops multimodal artificial intelligence models capable of processing text, audio, images, video and music. The company’s product portfolio includes MiniMax M1, Hailuo-02, Speech-02 and Music-01, positioning it as a direct competitor to American firms including OpenAI and Anthropic.
MiniMax represents the first of China’s post-ChatGPT generative artificial intelligence firms to go public. The company belongs to a group known as mainland AI dragons, which includes fellow startups Zhipu, Moonshot and Stepfun. Zhipu is also debuting in the same week with its own Hong Kong listing, having priced its offering at 116.20 Hong Kong dollars per share to raise 4.3 billion Hong Kong dollars.
The listing is scheduled to begin trading on January 9, joining a busy start to the year for Hong Kong’s exchange. Eleven companies have laid out plans to list in Hong Kong this month, targeting proceeds of up to 4.1 billion dollars. MiniMax’s debut will follow Shanghai Biren Technology, an artificial intelligence chip designer that surged 76 percent in its Hong Kong debut on January 2 and maintained gains above 70 percent from its initial public offering price.
The surge in technology listings reflects growing investor enthusiasm for Chinese artificial intelligence and semiconductor companies as China accelerates efforts to develop domestic alternatives following United States restrictions on technology exports. Six Chinese companies are scheduled to debut in Hong Kong this week, including Zhipu, chipmaker Iluvatar CoreX and surgical robotics maker Shenzhen Edge Medical.
Hong Kong’s exchange momentum follows a banner year in 2025 when the city topped global initial public offering rankings for the first time since 2019. A total of 114 companies raised 37.22 billion dollars on the main board, representing a 229 percent increase from the previous year. Market analysts expect Hong Kong to raise up to 38.5 billion dollars in 2026, supported by a pipeline of over 300 listing candidates.
