Chinese AI startups beat U.S. rivals to market with Hong Kong IPOs

Two fast-growing Chinese artificial intelligence firms, which are Zhipu AI and MiniMax, are set to debut on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in January 2026, aiming to raise $1B+ combined, ahead of U.S. giants like OpenAI and Anthropic.

Zhipu AI, founded in 2019 by professors from Tsinghua University, plans to list on January 8, offering about HK$4.35 billion (roughly $560 million) in shares. The company, also known internationally as Z.ai, has backing from big Chinese technology groups including Meituan, Tencent, Ant Group, Xiaomi, and others.

If successful, Zhipu will become one of the first major large-language-model-focused companies globally to go public.

Also, MiniMax, established in 2021 by a former executive of SenseTime, will begin trading after launching its IPO. MiniMax is seeking to raise up to HK$4.19 billion (about $538 million) by issuing shares priced toward the top of their marketed range, reflecting strong investor demand.

Key investors include Alibaba Group and others, and the firm’s products span multimodal AI capable of processing text, images, audio, and video. These listings come amid a surge of interest in AI companies on Hong Kong’s markets as China seeks to build homegrown tech champions while U.S. export restrictions limit access to advanced chips and other technologies.

The Hong Kong stock exchange has recently seen a wave of high-profile tech IPOs, and these two AI startups are now among the most closely watched.

Both firms have faced challenges as Zhipu has operated under U.S. export control restrictions, and MiniMax is dealing with a copyright lawsuit in the United States tied to its media-generation products.