China Tech’s Moment In The Sun: Alibaba-Backed AI Play MiniMax, Zhipu Make Strong Hong Kong Debuts

• MiniMax surged 86% on Friday, while Zhipu AI gained 13% the previous day – recording strong debuts.
• Alibaba-backed MiniMax develops AI models similar to those of OpenAI and has consumer video-generation apps.
• The strong debuts underscore both resilience in and rising investor optimism toward China’s software sector.

Chinese AI firm MiniMax’s shares surged more than 86% in their debut on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Friday, underscoring strong investor optimism around China’s AI and broader technology sector.

The Alibaba Group-backed company raised HK$4.8 billion ($620 million) in the initial public offering, with the retail portion subscribed by over 1,830 times the shares available. 

The gains follow Knowledge Atlas Technology’s Thursday listing and a 13% first-day jump in shares. The AI startup, also known as Zhipu AI, gained a further 15% on Friday.

MiniMax’s performance serves as a litmus test, suggesting that investor enthusiasm in China’s AI sector – so far concentrated on hardware makers – can extend to software firms.

China’s Tech Strength 

A spate of Chinese semiconductor firms recorded strong opening-day gains recently: chipmakers Moore Threads Technology and MetaX Integrated Circuits Shanghai soared severalfold, while chip designer Shanghai Biren Technology jumped 76% in Hong Kong.

Stocktwits previously reported that strength in China’s AI and technology sectors, coupled with rising investor confidence, drove the Hong Kong stock market to its best gains in several years in 2025.

Notable tech IPOs in the pipeline include Huawei’s AI server spin-off xFusion, memory chipmaker ChangXin Memory Technologies, and Baidu’s AI chip unit Kunlunxin.

What Does MiniMax Do?

Founded in 2022, Shanghai-based MiniMax develops artificial intelligence models. Its popular consumer apps include Hailuo AI, a video generation tool, and Talkie, an AI character interaction app that enables users to engage with AI-powered virtual personas.

Major investors in the company include Alibaba Group, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Boyu Capital, and Mirae Asset Management.

Bloomberg reported that the company’s co-founder, Yan Junjie, is an avid player of the battle-arena game Dota 2. He reportedly noticed OpenAI’s AI defeating the world’s top human players in 2019, which led him to devour the lab’s research papers and pivot his career from computer vision to natural language processing (NLP).

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