The first price increase in the Year of the Horse. AI stocks are going crazy.
The wealth - creating effect of AI is truly astonishing.
Author: Wang Manhua
Editor: Wang Qingwu
Source: China Venture Capital
The AI craze in the Hong Kong stock market has continued from before the Spring Festival to after it. In this frenzy, MiniMax and Zhipu are undoubtedly the most prominent stars.
On February 20th, the Hong Kong stock market in the Year of the Horse welcomed its first trading day. The stock prices of the "twin stars" of domestic large - scale AI models both soared. At the close, Zhipu soared 42.72%, closing at HK$725 per share; MiniMax also rose more than 14%, closing at HK$970 per share. The combined market value of the two companies exceeded the HK$300 billion mark.
What does HK$300 billion mean? For comparison, JD.com's current market value is about HK$294.584 billion. This means that the market value of these two AI companies, which have been established for less than a decade, has quietly exceeded that of an established Internet giant that has been in business for more than two decades.
The wealth - creating effect of AI is truly astonishing.
Stock prices soar by over 400% in two months
The stock price miracles of MiniMax and Zhipu did not start during the Spring Festival but were foreshadowed since their listing. As some of the first domestic large - scale AI model companies to list on the Hong Kong stock market, both companies have seen a spectacular upward trend in their stock prices since their listing.
Let's start with 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 HK$116.2 per share. It had a "good start" on its first trading day, with a market value reaching HK$57.89 billion. It's worth noting that during the public offering stage before its listing, it received nearly 1,160 times over - subscription, indicating the high market enthusiasm.
After listing, Zhipu's stock price has been steadily rising. Especially in February, the mysterious anonymous model "Pony Alpha" became extremely popular in overseas communities. At that time, market rumors suggested that this model was the new - generation large model GLM - 5 that Zhipu was about to launch. Stimulated by this news, Zhipu's stock price started a "rocket - like" upward mode. In just four trading days from February 9th to 12th, the cumulative maximum increase exceeded 110%.
On February 12th, Zhipu officially open - sourced its new - generation flagship model GLM - 5 and announced an increase in the subscription price of the GLM Coding Plan, with an overall increase starting from 30%. Immediately on the next trading day, the company's stock price soared by 20.65%. On February 20th, the first trading day of the Year of the Horse, Zhipu soared 42.72%, and its market value increased by HK$96.7 billion in a single day, equivalent to the size of Bilibili.
In just 43 days since its listing, Zhipu's cumulative stock price increase has exceeded 524%, and its market value has reached HK$323.24 billion.
Compared with Zhipu, MiniMax's performance on its first trading day was even more impressive. On January 9th, MiniMax listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. At the close of that day, its stock price soared 109.09%, closing at HK$345, and its market value directly reached HK$106.7 billion.
Since February, MiniMax's stock price has risen in tandem with the AI sector. It rose from HK$515 per share on February 9th to HK$970 per share on the fourth day of the Lunar New Year, with a nearly 90% increase in more than ten days. Compared with the issue price of HK$165, it has skyrocketed 4.88 times, and its market value has increased from HK$106.7 billion on the first trading day to HK$304.23 billion.
It's worth noting that on February 13th, MiniMax officially announced the launch of its new - generation text model MiniMax M2.5. The market generally believes that this is also an important catalyst for its continuous strong stock price performance.
From the "good start" on the first trading day to a stock price increase of more than four times, the capital market debuts of Zhipu and MiniMax can be called perfect. The strong performance of the two companies in the Hong Kong stock market has not only allowed secondary - market investors to make a fortune but also enabled the employee stock ownership plans of the companies to achieve significant returns.
According to the previous prospectuses, both companies launched employee stock ownership plans before listing. Among them, Zhipu's employees hold 51.2% of the shares, and MiniMax almost has all employees as shareholders. Based on the current market value, a considerable number of core employees have achieved "financial freedom" through their shareholdings.
Investors enjoy a good start at the beginning of the year
Of course, compared with retail investors "subscribing for new shares" in the secondary market and employees with shareholdings, the primary - market investment institutions that have accompanied the companies since their early stages are the most eye - catching beneficiaries of this wealth feast.
Let's start with Zhipu again. Zhipu was transformed from the technological achievements of the Department of Computer Science at Tsinghua University, originating from the Knowledge Engineering (KEG) Laboratory at Tsinghua University, which was established in 1996. The key figure and chief scientist, Tang Jie, comes from this laboratory. He once led the development of China's first open - source large model with one trillion parameters, "WuDao 2.0", and designed the GLM series of model architectures, promoting the autonomy of domestic large - model technology.
The company's CEO, Zhang Peng, graduated from the Department of Computer Science at Tsinghua University and is a Doctor of Tsinghua Innovation Leadership. The chairman, Liu Debing, once served as the deputy director of the Research Center for Big Data in Science and Technology at the Tsinghua Institute for Data Science.
With the dual backgrounds of the "Tsinghua clique" and "scientist entrepreneurship", Zhipu has attracted significant capital attention since its establishment and quickly become a "star project" in the primary market.
According to CVSource of China Venture Capital, before listing, Zhipu received investments from more than 50 institutions. Among them are VC/PE institutions such as Zhongke Chuangxing, Fortune Capital, Legend Capital, Qiming Venture Partners, Capital Today, Lightspeed China Partners, Shunwei Capital, Sequoia China, Hillhouse Capital, Yunhui Capital, and China Merchants Capital, as well as industrial capitals such as Meituan, Ant Group, Alibaba, Tencent, and Xiaomi, and local state - owned assets from Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Tianjin, Hangzhou, etc.
Currently, the above - mentioned institutions that have not exited are still in the lock - up period. However, based on the current stock price, their paper profits are already quite substantial.
The returns of early - stage investors are particularly astonishing. In 2019 when it was founded, Zhipu received a 40 - million - yuan angel - round investment from Zhongke Chuangxing, with a post - investment valuation of 375 million yuan. As of now, Zhongke Chuangxing still holds about 1.34% of Zhipu's shares. As the company's market value has climbed to HK$323.24 billion, the value of its holdings is as high as HK$4.33 billion.
Now let's look at MiniMax. In early 2022, Yan Junjie, the former vice - president of SenseTime, resolutely gave up his options just before SenseTime's listing and resigned to start MiniMax, focusing on the research and development of full - modality models.
In the past three years, the company has also gathered a top - notch investment lineup. Its shareholders include not only first - tier financial investors such as Hillhouse Capital, IDG Capital, Sequoia Capital, Matrix Partners China, Mingshi Capital, and China Life, but also industrial investors such as Mihoyo, Alibaba, Tencent, and Xiaohongshu.
Among them, Hillhouse Capital, Mihoyo, Yunqi Capital, and IDG Capital were the earliest angel - round investors of the company. At that time, the post - investment valuation was 200 million US dollars (equivalent to 1.38 billion yuan). Based on the closing price on February 20th, the paper returns of these institutions that entered in the angel round have also exceeded 100 times.
When the lock - up periods of the two companies expire, these institutions will truly reap the rewards.
Large - scale AI models all enter the "money - sucking" mode
In fact, the soaring stock prices of MiniMax and Zhipu are just a microcosm of the large - scale AI model track in the capital market in the past period. The financing stories in the primary market are also remarkable.
The earliest news came from DarkSide. On December 31st, DarkSide announced the completion of a 500 - million - US - dollar Series C financing, led by IDG Capital, with old shareholders such as Alibaba and Tencent over - subscribing. The company's post - investment valuation reached 4.3 billion US dollars.
Then on January 26, 2026, Jieyue Xingchen announced the completion of a Series B+ financing of over 5 billion yuan. The investors include Shanghai Guotou Leading Fund, China Life Equity Investment, Pudong Venture Capital, Xuhui Capital, Wuxi Liangxi Fund, Xiamen C&G, Huaqin Technology, etc. Old shareholders such as Tencent, Qiming Venture Partners, and Morningside Venture Capital further increased their investments.
This financing also set a new record for the highest single - round financing in China's large - model track in the past 12 months.
The enthusiasm has not subsided. Just on February 17th, the media reported that DarkSide's new round of financing of over 700 million US dollars is about to be finalized, jointly led by old shareholders such as Alibaba, Tencent, Morningside Venture Capital, and Jiuan. Its latest valuation has exceeded 10 billion US dollars.
In addition, Baichuan Intelligence, also one of the "six little tigers of large - scale AI models", has also signaled its intention to go public and is expected to launch an IPO in 2027.
In just three months, a series of huge - scale financing news has emerged one after another. Behind this is the re - pricing of capital driven by both technological breakthroughs and commercialization prospects.
As an early - stage investor in Zhipu, Zhongke Chuangxing said that the capabilities of large models are currently experiencing an unprecedented leap. There have been successive breakthroughs from "usable" to "user - friendly" in key fields such as language, multi - modality, video, code, and tool calls. A significant window period for large - model dividends has opened.
However, it is foreseeable that as competition becomes increasingly fierce, future funds and resources will accelerate their concentration on a few leading companies.
This article is from the WeChat official account “China Venture Capital”, author: Wang Manhua. It is republished by 36Kr with permission.