This article is from the WeChat Mini Program: Encrypted Cloud Tour
The AI boom in the Hong Kong stock market has been burning from before the festival to after, and in this carnival, MiniMax and Zhizhu are undoubtedly the most dazzling protagonists.
On February 20, the Hong Kong stock market welcomed the first trading day of the Lunar Year of the Horse, with domestic AI large models 'Twin Stars' seeing their stock prices surge. By the close, Zhizhu saw a rise of 42.72%, reporting 725 Hong Kong dollars per share; MiniMax also rose over 14%, reporting 970 Hong Kong dollars per share, with both companies' market values surpassing 300 billion Hong Kong dollars.
What does 300 billion Hong Kong dollars mean? In comparison, the current market value of JD.com is approximately 294.584 billion Hong Kong dollars, which means that these two AI companies, established for less than ten years, have quietly surpassed the market value of well-established internet giants that have been operating for over twenty years.
The wealth effect created by AI is indeed astonishing.
Over the past two months, the stock price has increased by over 400%.
The stock price myth of MiniMax and Zhipu did not start during the Spring Festival, but rather was foreshadowed from the very beginning of their listing. As one of the first AI large model companies to list on the Hong Kong stock market, both companies have since embarked on a magnificent upward trend.
First, let's look at Zhipu. As the 'world's first large model stock', Zhipu officially listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on January 8, 2026, with an issue price of 116.2 HKD/share, and it welcomed an 'opening red' on the first day, with its market value soaring to 57.89 billion HKD. Notably, during the public offering phase before its listing, it received nearly 1160 times of oversubscription, indicating the market's high enthusiasm.
After listing, Zhipu's stock price steadily rose. Especially entering February, the mysterious anonymous model 'Pony Alpha' exploded in overseas communities, and there were market rumors that this model was the new generation large model GLM-5 that Zhipu was about to release. Stimulated by this news, Zhipu's stock price began a 'rocket' type upward trend, with a cumulative maximum increase of over 110% within four trading days from February 9 to 12.
On February 12, Zhipu officially open-sourced the new generation flagship model GLM-5 and announced an increase in the subscription price for the GLM Coding Plan, with an overall increase starting at 30%. Subsequently, on the second trading day, the company's stock price surged by 20.65%. Time moved to February 20, the first trading day of the Year of the Rabbit, Zhipu soared by 42.72%, with a single-day market value increase of 96.7 billion HKD, which is equivalent to 'increasing' the size of a Bilibili.
In just 43 days since listing, Zhipu's stock price has cumulatively increased by over 524%, with its market value reaching 32.32 billion HKD.
Compared to Zhipu, MiniMax's performance on its first day of listing was even more impressive. On January 9, MiniMax listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, closing up 109.09% on the first day, with a stock price of 345 HKD, and its market value climbed directly to 106.7 billion HKD.
Since February, MiniMax's stock price has risen in tandem with the AI sector, from 515 HKD/share on February 9 to 970 HKD/share on the fourth day of the Lunar New Year, with an increase of nearly 90% in just over ten days, and a staggering increase of 4.88 times compared to the issue price of 165 HKD, with its market value rising from 106.7 billion HKD on the first day of listing to 304.23 billion HKD.
It is worth mentioning that on February 13, MiniMax officially announced the launch of the new generation text model MiniMax M2.5, which the market generally believes is also an important catalyst for its continuously strengthening stock price.
From the 'opening red' on the first day of listing to stock price increases exceeding four times, the capital market debut of Zhipu and MiniMax can be described as perfect. The strong performance of both companies in the Hong Kong stock market not only allowed secondary market investors to reap significant profits but also enabled the company's employee stock ownership plan to achieve super payouts.
According to the previous prospectus, both companies launched employee stock ownership plans before going public, with Zhipu's employee ownership ratio reaching 51.2%, and MiniMax nearly all employees holding shares. Based on the current market value, a considerable number of core employees have achieved 'financial freedom' through their holdings.
Investors have reaped the opening red at the beginning of the year.
Of course, compared to retail investors and employee shareholders who are 'new' in the secondary market, those primary market investment institutions that have accompanied the company since its inception are the most noteworthy beneficiaries of this wealth feast.
Let's start with Zhipu. Zhipu is derived from the technological achievements of the Computer Science Department at Tsinghua University, originating from the Knowledge Engineering (KEG) Laboratory established in 1996. The soul figure and chief scientist Tang Jie comes from this laboratory, where he led the development of China's first trillion-parameter open-source large model 'Wudao 2.0' and designed the GLM series model architecture, promoting the localization of domestic large model technology.
The company CEO Zhang Peng graduated from the Computer Science Department of Tsinghua University and is a leading doctoral figure in Tsinghua's innovation, while Chairman Liu Debing previously served as the deputy director of the Technology Big Data Research Center at Tsinghua University's Institute of Data Science.
With the dual background of 'Tsinghua System' and 'scientist entrepreneurship', Zhipu has attracted significant attention from capital since its inception, quickly becoming a 'star project' in the primary market.
According to CVSource from Touzhong Jia Chuan, before going public, Zhipu had cumulatively received investments from over 50 institutions. These included VC/PE institutions such as Zhongke Chuangxing, Dacheng Caizhi, Junlian Capital, Qiming Venture Partners, Jintai Capital, Lightspeed Guanghe, Shunwei Capital, Sequoia China, Hillhouse, Yunhui Capital, and China Merchants Venture Capital, as well as industrial capital from Meituan, Ant, Alibaba, Tencent, Xiaomi, and local state-owned assets from Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Tianjin, and Hangzhou.
Currently, the aforementioned institutions that have not exited are still in the lock-up period, but based on the current stock price, their book floating profits are quite considerable.
The returns for early investors are particularly astonishing. At its inception in 2019, Zhipu received 40 million yuan in angel round financing from Zhongke Chuangxing, with a post-investment valuation of 375 million yuan. To date, Zhongke Chuangxing still holds approximately 1.34% of Zhipu's shares, and as the company's market value has risen to 32.32 billion HKD, its holdings are valued at 4.33 billion HKD.
Now let's look at MiniMax. In early 2022, former SenseTime vice president Yan Junjie resolutely gave up his options and resigned to start MiniMax, focusing on the research and development of all-modal models.
Over the past three years, the company has gathered a top-tier investment lineup, with shareholders including first-tier financial investors such as Hillhouse, IDG, Sequoia, Jingwei, Mingshi, China Life Insurance, as well as industrial investors like MiHoYo, Alibaba, Tencent, and Xiaohongshu.
Among them, Hillhouse, MiHoYo, Yunqi Capital, and IDG are the earliest angel investors in the company, with a post-investment valuation of $200 million (equivalent to 1.38 billion RMB). Based on the closing price on February 20, the returns for these institutions from the angel round have also exceeded a hundred times.
When the lock-up period for both companies expires, the aforementioned institutions will welcome a real harvest moment.
AI large models have collectively entered the 'money-making' mode.
In fact, the skyrocketing stock prices of MiniMax and Zhipu are just a microcosm of the recent AI large model sector in the capital market, and the financing stories happening in the primary market are equally noteworthy.
The earliest news came from the dark side of the moon. On December 31, the dark side of the moon announced the completion of a $500 million Series C financing, led by IDG, with old shareholders like Alibaba and Tencent oversubscribing, resulting in a post-investment valuation of $4.3 billion.
Subsequently, on January 26, 2026, Jietiao Xingchen announced the completion of over 5 billion RMB in Series B+ financing, with investors including Shanggong Investment Leading Fund, Guo Life Equity, Pudong Venture Capital, Xuhui Capital, Wuxi Liangxi Fund, Xiamen Guomao, and Huqin Technology, while Tencent, Qiming Venture Partners, and Wuyuan further followed up.
This financing also set a new record for the highest single financing amount in China's large model sector in the past 12 months.
The enthusiasm has not dissipated. Just recently, on February 17, media reported that the new round of financing exceeding $700 million for the dark side of the moon is about to be completed, with old shareholders such as Alibaba, Tencent, Wuyuan, and Jiuaan jointly leading the investment, and the latest valuation exceeds $10 billion.
In addition, Baichuan Intelligent, one of the 'six small tigers of AI large models', has also released capitalizing signals during this period, with the company expected to initiate an IPO in 2027.
In just three months, news of huge financing has come in succession, driven by technological breakthroughs and commercial prospects leading to a re-pricing of capital.
As an early investor in Zhipu, Zhongke Chuangxing stated that the current large model capabilities are experiencing an unprecedented leap, breaking through the critical point from 'usable' to 'well usable' in key areas such as language, multimodal, video, code, and tool invocation. A significant window of large model dividends has already opened.
However, it can be anticipated that as competition gradually intensifies, future funds and resources will accelerate towards a few leading companies.