The AI craze in the Hong Kong stock market burned steadily from before the holiday through to after, and in this frenzy, MiniMax and Zhipu are undoubtedly the brightest stars.
On February 20, the Hong Kong stock market opened for its first trading day of the Lunar Year of the Horse, with China’s two leading AI large models seeing their stock prices surge. At closing, Zhipu rose 42.72% to HK$725 per share, while MiniMax climbed over 14% to HK$970 per share, with the combined market capitalization of both companies surpassing HK$300 billion.
What does HK$300 billion mean? For comparison, JD.com’s current market capitalization is approximately HK$294.584 billion, meaning that two AI companies, both less than a decade old, have quietly surpassed the market value of a decades-old internet giant.
The wealth-creation effect of AI is indeed astonishing.
Stock price increased over 400% in two months
The stock price surge of MiniMax and Zhipu was not initiated during the Spring Festival, but rather had been foreshadowed since their initial public offerings. As two of the first domestic AI large model companies to list on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, both firms have experienced a dramatic and powerful upward trend since their listings.
First, let’s look at Zhipu. As the world’s first publicly listed large model company, Zhipu officially debuted on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on January 8, 2026, with an offering price of HK$116.2 per share. On its first trading day, it achieved a strong start, with its market capitalization surging to HK$57.89 billion. Notably, even before listing, its public offering received oversubscription of nearly 1,160 times, highlighting the immense market interest.
After its listing, Zhipu's stock price steadily rose. In particular, entering February, the mysterious anonymous model "Pony Alpha" went viral in overseas communities, with market rumors suggesting it was none other than Zhipu's upcoming next-generation large model, GLM-5. Spurred by this news, Zhipu's stock entered a "rocket-like" surge, posting a cumulative peak gain of over 110% within just four trading days from February 9 to 12.
On February 12, Zhipu officially open-sourced its next-generation flagship model, GLM-5, and simultaneously announced an increase in the subscription price for the GLM Coding Plan, with hikes starting at 30%. The following trading day, the company’s stock surged 20.65%. On February 20, the first trading day of the Year of the Horse, Zhipu’s stock jumped another 42.72%, adding HK$96.7 billion in market value in a single day—equivalent to the market cap of Bilibili.
Just 43 days after listing, Zhipu's stock has surged over 524% cumulatively, with a market capitalization of HK$323.24 billion.
Compared to Zhipu, MiniMax’s debut performance was even more impressive. On January 9, MiniMax listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, closing up 109.09% on its first day at HK$345 per share, with a market capitalization reaching HK$106.7 billion.
Since February, MiniMax's stock price has risen in tandem with the AI sector, increasing from HK$515 per share on February 9 to HK$970 per share on the fourth day of the Lunar New Year—a nearly 90% gain within just over ten days. This represents a 4.88-fold increase from its offering price of HK$165, with market capitalization rising from HK$106.7 billion on its listing day to HK$304.23 billion.
Notably, on February 13, MiniMax officially launched its next-generation text model, MiniMax M2.5, which the market widely views as a key catalyst for its sustained stock price strength.
From a stellar debut on their first day of listing to stock price increases exceeding fourfold, Zhipu and MiniMax delivered a flawless debut in the capital markets. Their strong performance in the Hong Kong market has not only generated substantial returns for secondary market investors but also enabled a major payout for employees under their stock ownership plans.
According to their previous prospectuses, both companies introduced employee stock ownership plans prior to their IPOs; Zhipu’s employee ownership ratio reached 51.2%, while MiniMax nearly had full employee participation. Based on current market valuations, a significant number of core employees have already achieved financial freedom through their equity holdings.
Investors enjoy a strong start to the year
Of course, compared to retail investors and employees participating in the secondary market IPO or holding shares, the institutional investors who have been with the company since its early stages are the most prominent beneficiaries of this wealth bonanza.
Let’s start with Zhipu. Zhipu originated from technology transfer by the Department of Computer Science at Tsinghua University, stemming from the Knowledge Engineering (KEG) Laboratory, established in 1996. Its visionary leader and chief scientist, Tang Jie, hails from this lab and previously led the development of China’s first trillion-parameter open-source large model, Wudao 2.0, while designing the GLM series model architecture to advance the self-reliance of China’s large model technology.
Company CEO Zhang Peng graduated from the Department of Computer Science at Tsinghua University and is a Tsinghua Innovation Leadership Ph.D. Chairman Liu Debing previously served as Deputy Director of the Center for Scientific Big Data at the Tsinghua Institute for Data Science.
With dual backgrounds in Tsinghua University and scientist-led entrepreneurship, Zhipu has attracted significant capital attention since its founding and quickly become a standout project in the private equity market.
According to CVSource by Zhongtou Jiachuan, prior to its listing, Zhipu has raised investments from over 50 institutions, including venture capital and private equity firms such as China Star Venture, Dacheng Capital, Junlian Capital, Qiming Venture Partners, Jinri Capital, Lightspeed China Partners, Shunwei Capital, Sequoia Capital China, Hillhouse Capital, and Yunhui Capital, as well as industrial investors like Meituan, Ant Group, Alibaba, Tencent, and Xiaomi, and local state-owned enterprises from Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Tianjin, Hangzhou, and other regions.
Currently, the aforementioned institutions that have not yet exited remain within the lock-up period, but based on the current stock price, their unrealized paper gains are already substantial.
The return for early investors has been particularly remarkable. At its founding in 2019, Zhipu secured a 40 million RMB seed round from China Innovation & Startup Fund, resulting in a post-money valuation of 375 million RMB. To date, China Innovation & Startup Fund still holds approximately 1.34% of Zhipu’s shares; with the company’s market capitalization rising to HK$323.24 billion, the value of its stake has reached HK$4.33 billion.
Now consider MiniMax. At the beginning of 2022, Yan Junjie, former vice president of SenseTime, resigned and founded MiniMax, giving up his stock options just before SenseTime’s IPO, and focused on developing multimodal models.
Over the past three years, the company has assembled an elite investment lineup, with shareholders including top-tier financial investors such as Hillhouse, IDG Capital, Sequoia, Matrix Partners, Ming Shi Capital, and China Life, as well as industry investors like miHoYo, Alibaba, Tencent, and Xiaohongshu.
Among them, Hillhouse Capital, miHoYo, Yunqi Partners, and IDG were the company’s earliest angel investors, with a post-money valuation of $200 million (approximately RMB 1.38 billion). Based on the closing price on February 20, the paper returns for these angel investors have exceeded 100 times their initial investment.
Once the lock-up periods for both companies expire, the aforementioned institutions will enter their true period of harvest.
AI large models are all simultaneously entering "money-making" mode.
In fact, the soaring stock prices of MiniMax and Zhipu are merely a microcosm of the AI large model sector's surge in capital markets over the past period, with equally remarkable funding stories unfolding in the private market.
The earliest message came from Moonshot AI: On December 31, Moonshot AI announced the completion of its $500 million Series C funding round, led by IDG, with existing shareholders including Alibaba and Tencent oversubscribing; the company’s post-money valuation reached $4.3 billion.
On January 26, 2026, Jiepoin星辰 announced the completion of a B+ round of financing exceeding RMB 5 billion, with investors including Shanghai State-owned Investment Leading Fund, China Life Equity, Pudong Venture Capital, Xuhui Capital, Wuxi Liangxi Fund, Xiamen Guomao, and Huaqin Technology. Existing shareholders such as Tencent, Qiming Venture Partners, and 5Y Capital further participated in the round.
This funding round also set a new record for the largest single investment in China’s large model sector over the past 12 months.
The momentum has not faded. Just on February 17 of this month, media reports indicated that Moonshot AI is about to close its new round of financing exceeding $700 million, led by existing investors including Alibaba, Tencent, 5Y Capital, and Jiuan, with the company’s latest valuation surpassing $10 billion.
In addition, Baichuan Intelligence, another one of the "Six Little Tigers" of AI large models, has also signaled its intention to go public, with the company expecting to launch its IPO in 2027.
In just three short months, a series of massive funding announcements have emerged, driven by technological breakthroughs and promising commercial prospects that are reshaping capital valuation.
As an early investor in Zhipu, China Star Venture Capital stated that the capabilities of large models are currently undergoing unprecedented leaps, with critical breakthroughs相继 occurring in key areas such as language, multimodal, video, code, and tool usage—transitioning from merely "usable" to truly "user-friendly." A significant window of opportunity for large model benefits has now opened.
However, it is foreseeable that as competition intensifies, capital and resources will increasingly concentrate among a few leading companies.