Devoted Gamer’s Wealth Skyrockets to $2.4 Billion Following MiniMax IPO

MiniMax: A New Force in China's AI Industry

Source: MiniMax

For its first three years, Shanghai-based MiniMax Group Ltd. remained relatively quiet while the generative AI sector exploded around it. Rather than joining the rush to create ChatGPT alternatives, the company focused on a more ambitious goal: developing a unified model that could handle text, audio, and video inputs.

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Founder Yan Junjie describes those early years with a single word: “Painful.”

“It took four years to reach this stage—the first three were nothing but hardship,” Yan told Bloomberg in a November interview. However, their decision to pursue multi-modal AI has proven successful. When MiniMax launched its M2 foundation model in October 2025, it quickly attracted global developers. The company now powers at least 212 million users through various consumer applications, including AI avatars and the Hailuo video generator.

Photographer: Lam Yik/Bloomberg

MiniMax’s initial public offering on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Friday is seen as a barometer for investor confidence in an industry that has absorbed billions in funding and is only now beginning to demonstrate commercial potential.

The IPO also marks a significant financial milestone for Yan. With shares priced at the top of the range, MiniMax’s valuation reached $6.5 billion. By 9:40 a.m. in Hong Kong, shares had surged 45%, boosting the 36-year-old CEO’s net worth to approximately $2.4 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

A company spokesperson declined to discuss Yan’s personal wealth.

MiniMax’s rise has been supported by some of the most influential figures in China’s technology and Hong Kong’s financial sectors. Notable backers include Pacific Century Group, led by Richard Li (son of Li Ka-shing), and MiHoYo, the gaming company co-founded by billionaire Cai Haoyu.

Major Chinese tech companies like Alibaba and Tencent, along with Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund, have also invested in MiniMax.

From Small-Town Roots to AI Leadership

Yan grew up in a rural county in Henan province, where he taught himself advanced calculus in high school because the regular curriculum was too slow for him. Despite his talents, his initial ambition was modest: as a PhD student at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, he told friends he simply wanted to become a Java developer at IBM, aiming for an annual salary of about 280,000 yuan ($40,000), according to local reports.

Gaming Passion Shapes MiniMax’s Vision

Yan spent six years at SenseTime Group Inc., specializing in computer vision and eventually becoming vice president and deputy head of research. However, his career took a turn due to his passion for gaming. Fascinated by the success of OpenAI’s bots in defeating top human players in 2019, Yan began closely following developments in AI and gaming.

This gaming background is deeply embedded in MiniMax’s culture. Yan, who goes by the nickname “IO”—a play on input-output and a reference to a supportive game character—found common ground with MiHoYo’s Cai Haoyu, whose team is equally passionate about integrating AI into gaming.

Hailuo: MiniMax’s Flagship Innovation

MiniMax’s Hailuo (also known as Hailuo AI internationally) has become a standout product, especially among content creators in China and abroad. The tool enables users to transform text prompts into high-quality, six-second cinematic video clips.

Hailuo is frequently recognized as one of the few Chinese video models that can rival international offerings like Runway and OpenAI’s Sora. It is now MiniMax’s second-largest source of revenue, following the Talkie chat application.

Challenges and Financial Hurdles

Despite its achievements, MiniMax’s journey has not been without setbacks. Yan had to reevaluate the company’s direction in 2024 after failing to meet internal targets for monetization and user growth.

The company also operates in a challenging environment. While revenue increased by 175% year-over-year, investors remain focused on profitability. According to its IPO prospectus, MiniMax reported an adjusted loss of around $186 million in the first nine months of 2025, largely due to the high computing costs of training its “Mixture of Experts” (MoE) models.

Edison Lee, head of telecom research at Jefferies HK Limited, commented, “It’s difficult to justify the current valuations of these new AI companies, as their revenues are still low and must grow significantly to support such high market caps. The greatest risk is whether the US AI market remains strong—if it falters in 2026, Chinese AI stocks could face substantial downward pressure.”

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