Pure-play AI model companies are finding favour with investors as they list on stock exchanges.
Shanghai-based MiniMax Group made a spectacular debut on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on January 9, 2026, with shares surging as much as 54% on the first day of trading. The generative AI startup raised US$619 million in its initial public offering, becoming the second Chinese AI model company to go public following Z.AI’s landmark listing just days earlier.
Trading under the stock code 0100.HK—a symbolic nod to binary code—MiniMax’s IPO attracted plenty of retail investor interest, with subscriptions reaching more than 1,830 times the available shares. This demand signals robust market appetite for companies developing large language models and generative AI technologies, even as Chinese tech listings face ongoing global scrutiny.
“From 0 to 0100.HK,” the company announced on social media, emphasizing that the listing represents not a finish line but “fuel for our next leap toward AGI.” MiniMax positions itself around the principle of “Intelligence with Everyone,” reflecting its mission to make advanced AI accessible across a wide range of users and industries.
MiniMax was founded in December 2021 by former computer vision experts from SenseTime. It develops proprietary large language models (LLMs) across text, speech, music, images, and video modalities, including a trillion-parameter MoE model and Hailuo text-to-video technology. Its AI-native applications, such as MiniMax Agent, Hailuo AI video, MiniMax Audio, Talkie, and an Open API platform, serve over 212 million users and 100,000 enterprises/developers across 200+ countries. These products emphasize cost-effectiveness, with models like MiniMax-01 offering 4M token context for agent applications at competitive pricing ($0.2/million input tokens).
A Week of AI IPOs
MiniMax’s public debut comes on the heels of Z.AI’s historic listing on January 8, which marked the first time a pure-play AI model company went public on any global stock exchange. Z.AI, formerly known as Zhipu AI and listing as Knowledge Atlas Technology, raised HK$4.35 billion (approximately $560 million) in its offering.
The back-to-back listings represent a watershed moment for the AI industry, providing retail investors their first opportunity to directly participate in the AI revolution through companies solely focused on developing foundation models. Previously, public market exposure to AI technology was limited to large tech conglomerates like Alphabet, Microsoft, or Alibaba, where AI represents just one division among many business lines.
Investor Backing and Market Position
MiniMax has attracted significant financial backing from major investors, including Chinese tech giant Alibaba and Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund. This support from both domestic and international investors underscores confidence in the company’s technology and market position.
The company operates in an increasingly competitive landscape of Chinese AI developers, joining the ranks of what industry observers call China’s “AI Tigers.” This group includes publicly traded conglomerates like Alibaba and Tencent, as well as innovative startups such as DeepSeek, Moonshot AI, and now-public Z.AI. These companies have distinguished themselves by developing high-quality AI models, many of which are open-source, in contrast to the predominantly closed-source approach of American frontier labs like OpenAI and Anthropic.
The Broader AI IPO Pipeline
The MiniMax and Z.AI listings may represent just the beginning of a wave of AI companies going public. In the United States, OpenAI is rumored to be preparing for what could be one of the largest IPOs in history, while Anthropic is also reportedly exploring public market options. Beyond China and the U.S., AI model developers in other regions—including Mistral in France and LG in South Korea—are advancing their technologies, potentially positioning themselves for future public offerings.
However, the path forward for AI model companies isn’t without challenges. As the technology matures, AI models are becoming increasingly commoditized, with performance across different providers growing more similar. The substantial capital investments required for training and developing cutting-edge models mean these companies face significant ongoing expenses. Additionally, geopolitical tensions continue to shape the industry, as evidenced by the U.S. Commerce Department’s decision to add Z.AI to its Entity List over national security concerns in January 2025.
What It Means for Investors
For retail investors, the emergence of publicly traded pure-play AI companies offers unprecedented access to the technology reshaping industries worldwide. While these investments carry risks—including regulatory uncertainty, intense competition, and the challenge of maintaining technological differentiation—they provide a direct way to invest in companies at the forefront of artificial intelligence development.
MiniMax’s explosive first-day performance and the extraordinary oversubscription of its offering demonstrate that investors are willing to bet on the future of AI, even in a complex geopolitical environment. As the company pursues its vision of making “intelligence with everyone” a reality, its public listing provides the capital needed to advance research and development while offering millions of users and developers a stake in the company’s journey toward artificial general intelligence. And the success of these initial AI model company IPOs will likely be watched closely by other players in the space, potentially opening the floodgates for more listings in 2026 and beyond.