Race for “China’s First Large-Model IPO”: MiniMax and Zhipu AI Pass Hong Kong Listing Hearing
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Two leading Chinese AI unicorns, MiniMax and Zhipu AI, have passed the HKEX listing hearing, accelerating their race to become “China’s first large-model IPO.” MiniMax, which recently secured regulatory approval, could be one of the fastest firms to list under the new overseas filing regime.
Two of China’s leading AI unicorns, Zhipu AI and MiniMax, have passed their listing hearings with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, according to a report by The Paper, citing multiple sources.
Zhipu AI declined to comment when contacted, while MiniMax had not responded. Although a public listing for major AI firms was widely anticipated, the speed of Zhipu and MiniMax’s progress has exceeded market expectations.
Sources indicate that MiniMax received offshore listing filing approval from the China Securities Regulatory Commission this week and passed the HKEX hearing on December 17. If the process proceeds smoothly, MiniMax could become one of the fastest companies to clear the hearing since the new filing-based regime for overseas listings took effect. The company is eyeing a potential listing window in January 2026, though it has not confirmed the timeline. Founded in 2019, Zhipu AI is a commercial spin-off from the research of Tsinghua University’s Computer Science Department. On the business front, CEO Zhang Peng disclosed that its developer-focused “GLM Coding Plan” has achieved annual recurring revenue of over RMB 100 million (approx. $14 million).
The company currently has 2.7 million paying API users and expects its revenue to more than double in 2025. Zhang aims to grow the API business to contribute half of total revenue. MiniMax, founded in 2021, closed a $600 million Series A round in March 2024 at a $2.5 billion post-money valuation. The round was led by Alibaba, with participation from existing backers such as Tencent.
On October 27, MiniMax open-sourced its next-generation model, MiniMax-M2. It ranked in the global top five overall and first among open-source models on the Artificial Analysis benchmark, marking the first time a Chinese open-source model has reached the leaderboard’s top tier alongside firms like OpenAI and Google.
Source: The Paper
