MiniMax Hong Kong IPO Listing: From Steadfast Startup to All-Aware AI Leader

The Value of a Bold Vision

MiniMax shares have surged 45% since their official trading debut at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Friday, valuing the company at $6.5 billion. This success is no coincidence—it's the result of a strategy CEO Yan Junjie has diligently pursued over the past four years. With this increase, Yan's net worth, 36 years old, has surpassed $2.4 billion according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

This moment marks a significant turning point not only for Yan but also for China's AI technology industry. Global investors are witnessing the rise of a company that is not following the usual paths.

A Different Strategy from Limited “Booms”

While other companies race to create competing products to ChatGPT, MiniMax has chosen a less obvious but highly promising path: building a unified model capable of processing inputs from three formats—text, audio, and video.

Yan described the first three years as “Painful.” In an interview with Bloomberg in November, he shared, “It took four years to reach this stage—those first three years were all about difficulties.” This perseverance proved to be correct when M2—their core foundational model—launched in October 2025 and quickly attracted the attention of developers worldwide.

Currently, MiniMax provides services to at least 212 million users through various consumer applications, including AI avatar creation tools and the Hailuo video creation platform.

Major Players Behind the Scenes

Support for MiniMax is unsurprising given the list of investors. The backing group includes leading technology and financial giants:

• Pacific Century Group led by Richard Li (son of billionaire Li Ka-shing)
• MiHoYo, the gaming company of billionaire Cai Haoyu, who is also a co-founder
• Major Chinese tech conglomerates: Alibaba and Tencent
• Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund

This combination reflects the high level of confidence that major players have in MiniMax's long-term potential.

From Self-Taught Student to Billion-Dollar Company Founder

Yan grew up in a rural district in Henan Province, where he self-studied advanced calculus as a high school student because official programs were too slow for his learning pace. Despite his remarkable talent, his initial ambitions were modest—pursuing a PhD at the Chinese Academy of Sciences with a long-term goal of becoming a Java programmer at IBM earning about $40,000 a year.

Yan’s career took a turn when he worked six years at SenseTime Group—a company specializing in computer vision—where he became vice president and deputy head of research. However, his encounter with AI technology and his passion for video games changed everything.

Impressed by OpenAI’s AI bots defeating top gamers in 2019, Yan began closely following developments in AI and gaming. This passion became the DNA of MiniMax. Yan—nicknamed “IO,” inspired by the input-output concept and a supporting game character—found a kindred spirit in Cai Haoyu of MiHoYo, a company also at the forefront of integrating AI into gaming.

Hailuo: A Breakthrough Product on the Global Stage

Hailuo—MiniMax’s AI video creation tool—quickly became a standout product in the content creation community. The platform allows users to turn text prompts into six-second cinematic videos with high quality.

In the global context, Hailuo is recognized as one of the few Chinese video models capable of competing head-to-head with international products like Runway and Sora from OpenAI. This product is now the company's second-largest revenue source, after the chat application Talkie.

Revenue Growth but Still Deep in Losses

Despite notable achievements, MiniMax faces practical challenges. The company's revenue increased by 175% year-over-year, but investors remain focused on profitability.

According to its IPO filing, MiniMax reported an adjusted loss of approximately $186 million in the first nine months of 2025. The main reason is the enormous computational costs associated with training “Mixture of Experts” (MoE) models.

In 2024, Yan had to reassess the company's direction after failing to meet internal goals for profitability and user growth.

Hidden Risks of the Global AI Landscape

Edison Lee, head of telecommunications research at Jefferies HK Limited, expressed reasonable concerns: “It's hard to justify the current valuation of these new AI companies because their revenue is still low and they need strong growth to support such high market capitalization.”

The biggest risk is the sustainability of the growth momentum in the US AI market. If it weakens in 2026, Chinese AI stocks could face significant downward pressure.

MiniMax has demonstrated the ability to create products with genuine dedication to a different approach. However, whether the company can successfully turn this technological vision into sustainable profits remains a question that will take time to answer.