The debut rally came a day after rival Zhipu AI jumped 12% on its first day after its own US$558 million initial public offering.

This week’s flotations come before any IPO announcements from top US startups OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, and Anthropic, which is known for its Claude chatbot.

Founded in 2022, MiniMax has 200 million users and runs several applications, including its flagship video generator, Hailuo AI.

Its CEO Yan Junjie, was previously an executive at leading AI software company SenseTime, which is now blacklisted by the US Commerce Department.

The advancement and application of artificial intelligence “depend on ongoing technological innovation, but even more so on the inclusivity and openness of the entire process,” Yan said in Friday’s listing ceremony.

Co-founder and COO Yun Yeyi told Bloomberg that MiniMax had only spent around US$500 million to make optimisation and creative innovations.

“We focus more resources on building the models and product experience,” Yun said.

Proceeds from the IPO will be used for its research over the next five years to develop foundation models and AI-native products, the firm said.

MiniMax’s team includes researchers who previously worked for tech giants such as Google, Microsoft, China’s Alibaba and DeepSeek.

But the startup also faces a US$75 million copyright lawsuit from Disney, Universal, and Warner Bros. Discovery over its video-generating tool.

The firm has maintained “there is insufficient evidence to support” the claims.

The large language model market in China is estimated to grow to 101.1 billion yuan (US$14.5 billion) by 2030, according to consultancy Frost and Sullivan.

Baidu, the operator of China’s top search engine, said this month that its AI chip unit Kunlunxin also filed a listing application in Hong Kong.

AI will cumulatively contribute US$19.9 trillion to the global economy through 2030 and drive 3.5% of global GDP in that year, according to International Data Corporation.