Alibaba-backed MiniMax mulls Hong Kong IPO – report

Chinese AI startup MiniMax is considering an IPO in Hong Kong, Bloomberg News reported.

MiniMax, one of China’s so-called ‘new AI tigers or dragons which is valued at about $3B, could aim to list as soon as this year, the report added.

The company, which is backed by Chinese e-commerce and tech giant Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) and gaming company Tencent (OTCPK:TCEHY) (OTCPK:TCTZF), has hired financial advisers for the IPO. The discussions are ongoing and details like valuation and timing could change, the report noted.

MiniMax did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Seeking Alpha.

The Shanghai-based company was founded in 2021 by Yan Junjie, who is also the CEO.

MiniMax is part of the new AI tigers of China which include Moonshot AI, Baichuan and Zhipu AI. Zhipu is also preparing for an IPO and it is also backed by Alibaba and Tencent.

Last year, in March, it was reported that Alibaba was leading a funding round of at least $600M for MiniMax. The Chinese startup secured funds from Alibaba and other investors at a valuation of over $2.5B.

On Tuesday, MiniMax claimed that its new model outdoes all closed-source competitors from China in complex scenarios for productivity. M1 also scored higher than DeepSeek’s (DEEPSEEK) R1-0528 model.

MiniMax also upgraded a text-to-video model behind its video editor Hailuo AI. Other products include AI companion app Talkie, which competes with Character.AI in the U.S., the report added.