MiniMax Targets Shanghai STAR Market Dual Listing
Key insights
- MiniMax posted a $250 million net loss on $79 million in 2025 revenue, even as its Hong Kong shares surged over 400%.
- Zhipu AI's shares surged over 1,600% from IPO to a HK$880 billion market cap on May 29 as it also pursues a STAR listing.
- MiniMax's M2.7 model ranked 18th on OpenRouter with 526 billion tokens consumed, trailing market leader DeepSeek.
Why this matters
This dual-listing wave reveals that generative AI development in China now requires capital at a scale that single-market listings cannot reliably supply. For AI practitioners and technical leaders, the $250 million annual loss on $79 million revenue at MiniMax signals a structural mismatch between compute costs and near-term monetization that applies across the sector. The synchronized moves by MiniMax and Zhipu AI toward STAR Market listings suggest mainland China's capital markets are becoming the primary backstop for the world's most compute-intensive AI development.
Summary
MiniMax signed an IPO tutoring agreement with CITIC Securities on May 29, beginning preparations for a STAR Market dual listing five months after its January 9 Hong Kong debut. The company posted a $250 million net loss on $79 million revenue in 2025, making the case for additional capital hard to argue with.
Its user base exceeds 300 million, but MiniMax's M2.7 model ranked 18th on OpenRouter with 526 billion tokens consumed, trailing DeepSeek. The M3 multimodal model, supporting up to 1 million token context, is priced above Chinese rivals but below overseas models like GPT-5.5.
Essentially: (MiniMax, Zhipu AI) are both pushing toward mainland listings as compute costs and persistent losses demand more capital than Hong Kong alone provides.
- Zhipu AI, which IPO'd in Hong Kong one day before MiniMax, hired Guotai Junan Haitong Securities and CICC for STAR Market preparations.
- Zhipu AI's shares surged over 1,600% from IPO price, reaching HK$880 billion in market value as of May 29.
China's AI race is now a capital-markets story as much as a technology one.
Potential risks and opportunities
Risks
- MiniMax's STAR Market listing could face regulatory delays if Chinese securities authorities scrutinize the pace of simultaneous dual listings by multiple cash-burning AI firms.
- If STAR Market valuations come in below current Hong Kong market caps, both MiniMax and Zhipu AI shareholders face dilution risk after 400% and 1,600% post-IPO run-ups respectively.
- Persistent losses at both companies could force additional capital raises within 12-24 months of STAR Market listings, risking investor fatigue in Chinese AI equity names.
Opportunities
- CITIC Securities, Guotai Junan Haitong Securities, and CICC stand to capture significant underwriting fees as China's top AI firms run simultaneous dual-listing processes.
- Chinese cloud and compute providers benefit as fresh STAR Market capital raises unlock new GPU procurement budgets at MiniMax and Zhipu AI.
- China-focused AI and tech ETF providers face near-term index inclusion decisions as both companies add domestic listings, potentially concentrating institutional inflows.
What we don't know yet
- No timeline disclosed for when MiniMax expects to complete its STAR Market IPO process following the May 29 tutoring agreement signing.
- No profitability path or break-even projection provided for MiniMax, which lost $250 million on $79 million revenue in 2025.
- Whether Zhipu AI's STAR Market preparations have reached a formal tutoring-agreement milestone comparable to MiniMax's May 29 signing is not confirmed in the article.
Originally reported by Caixin Global
Read the original article →Original headline: MiniMax Signs Shanghai STAR Market IPO Tutoring Agreement Six Months After Hong Kong Debut — Zhipu AI Also Pursuing Dual Listing as Chinese AI Firms Race to Secure Capital