Alibaba (BABA) has backed MiniMax, an artificial intelligence startup based in Shanghai, as it prepares to launch its initial public offering in early 2026 on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, according to Bloomberg.
Founded in 2022, MiniMax creates multimodal large language models for coding, agentic performance, and context processing capabilities that can understand, generate, and integrate a wide range of modalities, including text, audio, images, video, and music. Its investor relations webpage said it has served more than 200M users in over 100 countries.
The startup hopes to raise a minimum of $492M from selling more than 25M shares during its IPO on January 9, the report said. MiniMax, which has been called one of the Chinese AI dragons, competes with OpenAI (OPENAI). The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority is another key investor in the startup.
MiniMax plans to use funds raised from its IPO for research and development for new AI models and products over the next five years, the report said. MiniMax generated $30.5M in revenue last year.
Chinese AI companies have garnered more attention ever since DeepSeek (DEEPSEEK) made waves in early 2025.
Earlier this week, it was revealed that Meta Platforms (META) is acquiring Manus, an AI startup originally founded in China by Butterfly Effect Technology before relocating its headquarters to Singapore.