Minimax surged 109% on its first day of trading on the Hong Kong stock market, with Alibaba and miHoYo making a fortune!

On January 9th, China's AI large model unicorn MiniMax officially listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, setting the record for the fastest time from establishment to listing for an AI company globally. On its first day of trading, MiniMax's stock price performed strongly, closing up 109% from the issue price, with a market capitalization surpassing HKD 100 billion, demonstrating the capital market's fervent enthusiasm for leading generative artificial intelligence assets in China.

The IPO was priced at HKD 165, at the upper limit of the offering range. With strong support from retail investors and long-term funds, MiniMax's public offering was oversubscribed by 1,837 times, while the international offering was subscribed 37 times. The issuance ultimately raised approximately HKD 5.54 billion, attracting several star cornerstone investors, including the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Singapore's sovereign wealth fund, and Alibaba.

Due to early deep investments from domestic tech giants and top venture capital institutions, MiniMax's surge has brought substantial paper returns to investors. Based on intraday prices, the asset values of early shareholders such as Alibaba, miHoYo, Tencent, and IDG have doubled compared to the previous financing round, with Alibaba's share value once exceeding HKD 10 billion.

This listing marks the official start of a large-scale secondary market fundraising wave for Chinese AI companies. While OpenAI and other American peers still primarily rely on private funding, Chinese AI startups, due to more urgent funding needs, have taken the lead in turning to the public market. Gavekal Dragonomics analyst Tilly Zhang pointed out that in the absence of funding support on the scale of American giant cloud service providers, IPOs have become a realistic way for Chinese AI companies to secure funding for research and development and infrastructure investments.

Refreshing Global Listing Speed and Gaining International Long-term Fund Increases

MiniMax's IPO was priced at HKD 165 per share, which is at the upper limit of the offering range. However, this high pricing did not dampen market enthusiasm. After opening on January 9th, the stock price quickly surged, rising over 80% at one point during the day. By the close, the stock price was HKD 345, up 109% from the issue price, with a total market capitalization reaching HKD 105.4 billion (approximately USD 13.5 billion).

In just over four years, MiniMax completed the leap from establishment to listing, setting a record for the speed of AI company listings on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The global offering consisted of approximately 33.58 million shares, and assuming full exercise of the "green shoe," the total fundraising amount would be approximately HKD 5.54 billion.

Retail investors showed high enthusiasm for participation, with the public offering portion being oversubscribed by 1,837 times, leading to the activation of the reallocation mechanism, adjusting the public offering ratio to 17.4%. Due to fierce competition, the first-hand subscription rate was only 2.81%, meaning retail investors needed to subscribe to 4,000 shares to secure one lot. For investors who received one lot (20 shares), the paper profit on the first day was approximately HKD 3,600.

Early Investors Reap Rich Rewards: Alibaba and miHoYo Value Reassessment

The surge in MiniMax has brought substantial profits to its "luxury shareholder group." According to the prospectus and public information, the company has introduced 14 cornerstone investors this time, with a total subscription amount of approximately HKD 2.723 billion, covering well-known institutions such as Aspex, Eastspring, Mirae Asset, Alibaba, and E Fund.

As a core strategic investor, Alibaba holds an important position in MiniMax's equity structure. Alibaba currently holds approximately 38.248 million shares, accounting for 13.66% of the total shares. Based on the closing price on the first day, the book value of Alibaba's shares is as high as approximately HKD 10.3 billion.

Other early industrial investors have also made significant profits. miHoYo holds about 6.4% of the shares, with a book value of approximately HKD 4.8 billion; Tencent holds 2.58%, with a book value close to HKD 2 billion; IDG holds 2.8%, with a book value exceeding HKD 2.1 billion. For these institutions that began investing in 2022, they have achieved several times the investment return in just four years.

Before this IPO, MiniMax had raised a total of USD 1.556 billion, with the post-financing valuation in the last round of financing in August 2025 being USD 4.24 billion. This means that in less than half a year, the secondary market has more than doubled MiniMax's valuation compared to the previous round of financing.

Rapid Revenue Growth: Overseas Markets Contribute 70% of Profits

MiniMax has shown strong growth momentum in commercialization. The prospectus indicates that in the first three quarters of 2025, the company's revenue was USD 53.4 million (approximately RMB 380 million), a year-on-year increase of 174.7%. It is worth noting that MiniMax's revenue is highly dependent on the global market, with overseas revenue accounting for over 70%.

The company's current business focus is on consumer-grade AI products. Its character chatbot Talkie is very popular among American teenagers, and the video generation platform "Conch AI" is also a major source of revenue. As of September 2025, MiniMax has over 212 million individual users in more than 200 countries and regions. BNY Senior Strategist Wee Khoon Chong believes that the successful listings of MiniMax and Zhizhu AI reflect the continued optimistic sentiment in the market towards China's AI sector.

MiniMax plans to use the funds raised from this IPO mainly for large model upgrades, AI-native product development, and overseas business expansion over the next five years. Although facing profitability challenges, MiniMax post-IPO has access to richer financing tools and stronger capital backing. As Chinese AI chip companies like Biren Technology and Moore Threads begin their IPO processes, the secondary market's pricing logic for the domestic artificial intelligence industry chain is being restructured