Two IPO-Bound AI Model Developers Reveal Their Losses

Two Chinese AI startups are vying to be the first publicly traded AI model providers in the global stock market, ahead of expected future initial public offerings from OpenAI and Anthropic. The Chinese firms’ IPO filings offer a window into the hardship facing smaller AI firms that don’t have older cash-cow businesses.

Shanghai-based MiniMax Group and Beijing-based Knowledge Atlas Technology, better known as Zhipu, both recently received regulatory approval to go public in the Hong Kong stock exchange. Both companies will likely do so in the next few weeks, and their listings will test public market appetite for unprofitable AI startups that are still looking for sustainable revenue.

MiniMax and Zhipu—which OpenAI analysts earlier this year said was making “notable progress”—are part of China’s six little dragons that have spearheaded its AI push by developing large language models and other general-purpose models.

Unlike Alibaba Group, a large conglomerate, and DeepSeek, which is fully funded by its hedge fund parent company, MiniMax and Zhipu have largely relied on venture capital for survival. But that private pool of capital is limited because of Washington’s restrictions on U.S. investments in China’s AI sector. (Zhipu has disputed Washington’s allegations that it is aiding China’s military modernization.)