The AI craze in the Hong Kong stock market burned from before the holiday into the post-holiday period, and MiniMax and Zhipu were undoubtedly the most dazzling protagonists in this frenzy.
On February 20, the first trading day of the Lunar New Year in Hong Kong, the share prices of two leading domestic AI large-scale model companies both surged. At the close, Zhipu jumped 42.72% to HK$725 per share, while MiniMax rose over 14% to HK$970 per share, bringing the combined market capitalization of the two companies above HK$300 billion.
What does HK$300 billion mean? In comparison, JD.com's current market value is approximately HK$294.584 billion. This means that the market value of these two AI companies, which are less than ten years old, has quietly surpassed that of established internet giants that have been operating for more than twenty years.
The wealth-creating effect of AI is indeed astonishing.
The stock price has surged by over 400% in two months.
The phenomenal stock performance of MiniMax and Zhipu did not begin during the Spring Festival, but rather the seeds were sown from the very beginning of their IPOs. As among the first batch of AI large-scale model companies in China to be listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, both companies have experienced a magnificent upward trend since their listings.
Let's first look at Zhipu. As the "world's first large-scale model stock," Zhipu officially listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on January 8, 2026, with an issue price of HK$116.2 per share. It enjoyed a "flying start" on its first day of trading, with its market capitalization soaring to HK$57.89 billion. It's worth noting that during its pre-listing public offering phase, it received nearly 1160 times oversubscription, demonstrating the market's enthusiasm.
After its IPO, Zhipu's stock price steadily rose. Particularly in February, the mysterious, anonymous model "Pony Alpha" became a sensation in overseas communities. Market rumors at the time suggested that this model was Zhipu's upcoming next-generation large-scale model, GLM-5. Stimulated by this news, Zhipu's stock price began a rocket-like surge, with a cumulative maximum increase of over 110% in just four trading days from February 9th to 12th.
On February 12th, Zhipu officially open-sourced its next-generation flagship model, GLM-5, and announced an increase in the subscription price of its GLM Coding Plan, with an overall increase starting at 30%. The following trading day, the company's stock price surged 20.65%. On February 20th, the first trading day of the Year of the Horse, Zhipu's stock price jumped 42.72%, adding HK$96.7 billion to its market capitalization in a single day—equivalent to the size of a Bilibili company.
In just 43 days since its listing, Zhipu's stock price has increased by more than 524%, and its market value has reached HK$323.24 billion.
Compared to Zhipu, MiniMax's performance on its first day of trading was even more impressive. On January 9th, MiniMax listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, closing up 109.09% at HK$345, with its market capitalization soaring to HK$106.7 billion.
Since February, MiniMax's stock price has risen in tandem with the AI sector, from HK$515 per share on February 9 to HK$970 per share on the fourth day of the Lunar New Year, an increase of nearly 90% in just over ten days. It has also surged 4.88 times compared to its issue price of HK$165, and its market capitalization has increased from HK$106.7 billion on the first day of listing to HK$304.23 billion.
It is worth mentioning that on February 13, MiniMax officially announced the launch of its new generation text model, MiniMax M2.5, which is widely regarded as an important catalyst for its continued stock price increase.
From their strong debut on the first day of trading to share price increases of over four times, Zhipu and MiniMax's first foray into the capital market was nothing short of perfect. Their robust performance in the Hong Kong stock market not only brought substantial profits to secondary market investors but also led to a massive realization of their employee stock ownership plans.
According to their previous prospectuses, both companies launched employee stock ownership plans before going public. Zhipu's employee stock ownership ratio reached 51.2%, while MiniMax had almost all employees holding shares. Based on the current market value, a considerable number of core employees have achieved "financial freedom" through stock ownership.
Investors reap a strong start to the year
Of course, compared to retail investors and employees who participate in IPOs in the secondary market, the primary market investment institutions that have been with the company since its inception are the most prominent beneficiaries of this wealth feast.
Let's start with Zhipu. Zhipu is a product of the technological achievements of the Department of Computer Science at Tsinghua University, which originated from the Knowledge Engineering (KEG) Laboratory at Tsinghua University, established in 1996. The key figure and chief scientist, Tang Jie, comes from this laboratory. He led the development of China's first open-source large-scale model with trillion parameters, "Wudao 2.0," and designed the architecture of the GLM series of models, promoting the independent development of domestic large-scale model technology.
The company's CEO, Zhang Peng, graduated from the Department of Computer Science at Tsinghua University and is a leading PhD in innovation at Tsinghua. Chairman Liu Debing previously served as the deputy director of the Big Data Research Center at Tsinghua Data Science Institute.
With its dual background of being affiliated with Tsinghua University and being a scientist-led startup, Zhipu has attracted much attention from investors since its inception and has quickly become a "star project" in the primary market.
According to CVSource, prior to its IPO, Zhipu had received investments from over 50 institutions. These included VC/PE firms such as CAS Star, Dachen Capital, Legend Capital, Qiming Venture Partners, Today Capital, Lightspeed China Partners, Shunwei Capital, Sequoia Capital China, Hillhouse Capital, Yunhui Capital, and China Merchants Venture Capital; industrial capital from companies like Meituan, Ant Group, Alibaba, Tencent, and Xiaomi; and local state-owned enterprises from Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Tianjin, and Hangzhou.
Currently, the aforementioned institutions that have not yet exited are still within the lock-up period, but based on the current stock price, their unrealized gains are already quite substantial.
The returns for early investors have been particularly impressive. At its inception in 2019, Zhipu secured 40 million yuan in angel investment from CAS Star, valuing the company at 375 million yuan post-investment. As of now, CAS Star still holds approximately 1.34% of Zhipu's shares; with the company's market capitalization climbing to HK$323.24 billion, its stake is worth a staggering HK$4.33 billion.
Let's look at MiniMax. In early 2022, Yan Junjie, the former vice president of SenseTime, resolutely gave up his stock options and resigned to start his own business, MiniMax, on the eve of SenseTime's IPO, focusing on the research and development of full-modal models.
Over the past three years, the company has also assembled a top-tier investment lineup, with shareholders including not only leading financial investors such as Hillhouse Capital, IDG Capital, Sequoia Capital, Matrix Partners, Ming Capital, and China Life Insurance, but also industry investors such as miHoYo, Alibaba, Tencent, and Xiaohongshu.
Among them, Hillhouse Capital, miHoYo, Yunqi Capital, and IDG were the company's earliest angel round investors. At that time, the post-investment valuation was US$200 million (equivalent to RMB 1.38 billion). Based on the closing price on February 20, the book returns of these institutions that entered in the angel round exceeded 100 times.
Once the lock-up period for the two companies expires, the aforementioned institutions will reap the real rewards.
Large AI models are all entering "money-making" mode.
In fact, the soaring stock prices of MiniMax and Zhipu are just a microcosm of the AI large model track in the capital market in the past period. The financing stories that have taken place in the primary market are equally remarkable.
The earliest news came from Dark Side of the Moon. On December 31, Dark Side of the Moon announced the completion of a $500 million Series C financing round, led by IDG, with existing shareholders such as Alibaba and Tencent oversubscribing. The company's post-investment valuation reached $4.3 billion.
Subsequently, on January 26, 2026, Jieyue Xingchen announced the completion of a B+ round of financing of over RMB 5 billion. Investors included Shanghai International Investment Pioneer Fund, China Life Equity, Pudong Venture Capital, Xuhui Capital, Wuxi Liangxi Fund, Xiamen International Trade, Huaqin Technology, etc., with existing shareholders such as Tencent, Qiming Venture Partners, and Wuyuan Capital further participating in the financing.
This round of financing has also broken the record for the highest single financing in China's large model industry in the past 12 months.
The buzz hasn't died down. Just on February 17th, media reported that Dark Side of the Moon is about to complete a new round of financing exceeding $700 million, led by existing shareholders including Alibaba, Tencent, Five Resources, and Jiuan, with its latest valuation surpassing $10 billion.
In addition, Baichuan Intelligent, another of the "Six Little Tigers of AI Big Models", also released capitalization signals during this period, and the company is expected to launch its IPO in 2027.
In just three months, news of massive financing has followed one after another. Behind this is the repricing of capital driven by technological breakthroughs and commercial prospects.
As an early investor in Zhipu, Zhongke Chuangxing stated that the current large model capabilities are experiencing an unprecedented leap, with breakthroughs in key areas such as language, multimodal, video, code, and tool invocation, moving from "usable" to "easy to use." A significant window of opportunity for large model dividends has already opened.
However, it is foreseeable that as competition intensifies, future funds and resources will accelerate their concentration in a few leading companies.
