HONG KONG, Dec 31 (GeokHub) — Chinese artificial intelligence startup MiniMax Group is seeking to raise up to HK$4.19 billion ($539 million) in a Hong Kong initial public offering, exchange filings showed on Wednesday, as AI firms and chipmakers drive a strong recovery in the city’s equity markets heading into 2026.
MiniMax is among six companies that launched listings on Wednesday with a combined fundraising target of HK$16.7 billion, underscoring renewed investor appetite for technology stocks.
Hong Kong raised $36.5 billion from 114 IPOs in 2025, its strongest annual performance since 2021 and more than triple the roughly $11.3 billion raised in 2024, according to LSEG data.
MiniMax plans to offer 25.4 million shares priced between HK$151 and HK$165 each, ahead of a Jan. 9 trading debut. The offering would value the company at about $6.5 billion.
Two Chinese semiconductor companies — OmniVision Integrated Circuits and GigaDevice Semiconductor — have also begun bookbuilding for their Hong Kong IPOs, each aiming to raise around $600 million.
“The wave of IPO approvals suggests a shift toward accelerating AI startup development through capital market access,” said Lian Jye Su, chief analyst at research firm Omdia.
“While the U.S. maintains an edge in advanced computing due to chip superiority, public funding helps China build a more resilient and self-sufficient AI ecosystem.”
Founded in early 2022 by former SenseTime executive Yan Junjie, MiniMax develops multimodal large language models capable of processing text, audio, images and video. Its products include MiniMax M1, Hailuo-02, Speech-02 and Music-01.
MiniMax is among the first Chinese developers of large language models to pursue a public listing in Hong Kong.
Rival firm Knowledge Atlas Technology, known as Zhipu AI, launched its IPO a day earlier, seeking to raise HK$4.35 billion at a valuation of HK$51.2 billion.
AI stocks boom
Investor interest in Chinese AI firms has increased following the emergence of DeepSeek, a domestic alternative to ChatGPT, and recent global industry developments, fuelling expectations of strong IPO activity into 2026.
Chinese chipmakers ChangXin Memory Technologies and Baidu’s AI chip unit Kunlunxin are among companies exploring listings on domestic or Hong Kong exchanges, Reuters has reported.
Recent onshore IPOs of AI chip firms Moore Threads and MetaX were heavily oversubscribed, with shares trading well above issue prices despite recent market pullbacks.
MiniMax’s IPO has attracted cornerstone investors including Alibaba, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Boyu Capital and Mirae Asset, according to its prospectus.
OmniVision’s offering secured commitments from Boyu Capital’s Wildlife Willow, UBS Asset Management Singapore and PSBC Wealth Management, while GigaDevice received backing from CPE and Yunfeng Capital.
Several other companies, including biotech firm Suzhou Ribo Life Science and logistics group Hongxing Coldchain (Hunan), also launched offerings on the final day of 2025.
Proceeds from the IPOs will be used for research and development, product expansion and working capital, company filings show.
Semiconductor designer Shanghai Biren Technology is scheduled to debut on Friday, opening the first wave of Hong Kong listings in 2026, followed by Zhipu AI and other technology firms in early January.
