Zhipu AI and MiniMax become first LLM labs to go public (Hong Kong)
Confirmed
Importance: major (4 of 5)The takeaway
Chinese ‘AI tigers’ Zhipu AI (Jan 8) and MiniMax (Jan 9, 2026) listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, becoming the first major large-language-model companies to go public — ahead of OpenAI and Anthropic.
Status
- Claim
Confirmed
- Our reporting
- High confidence
- Importance
- Major (4 of 5)
- Last verified
- 29 September 2026
Your AI and this story
- GPT-6 AstraIn its training data
- Claude Opus 5.5In its training data
- Gemini 4 HydrogenIn its training data
- Grok 4.7In its training data
It happened before the cutoffs of all four assistants, so it can be in their training data.
Key facts
- Zhipu AI IPO raised US$558M; listed 2026-01-08; market value once exceeded HK$57B
- MiniMax IPO raised US$619M; listed 2026-01-09; shares rose 109% on debut
- Zhipu founded 2019 by Tsinghua professors; backers include Meituan, Tencent, Ant Group
- MiniMax founded 2021 by ex-SenseTime executive Yan Junjie; operates Hailuo video generator
What happened
Within two days, two of China’s leading foundation-model startups listed in Hong Kong. Zhipu (GLM models, internationally branded Z.ai) raised $558M and MiniMax (M-series LLMs, Hailuo video) raised $619M.
Why it matters
Public listings give Chinese labs a capital source independent of US venture money and made them the first pure-play LLM developers with public market valuations.
Sources
3 sources from 3 sites. Numbers match the chips in the text.
3 sources: 3 press
Press
- CNBC: MiniMax doubles in Hong Kong debutcnbc.com, press
- Rest of World: China’s MiniMax, Zhipu AI beat OpenAI to IPOrestofworld.org, press
- Malay Mail: MiniMax surges 109% in Hong Kong IPOmalaymail.com, press
Changes
- Filed