Chinese large-language model (LLM) company MiniMax is planning a secondary listing on the A-share market following its HK$106.7 billion ($13.6 billion) IPO in Hong Kong in January. A Chinese industry expert said that the move signals market confidence that the country's artificial intelligence (AI) rally is gaining higher momentum.

MiniMax formally initiated its IPO tutoring process on the Shanghai Stock Exchange's STAR Market on Friday, with CITIC Securities serving as its adviser, according to the China Securities Regulatory Commission's website. Its shares jumped on Friday to HK$840, extending its gain since its January debut to about 400 percent.

The move signals that China's two leading LLM start-ups — MiniMax and Zhipu AI — are poised to meet again on the A-share market, following their listings in Hong Kong earlier this year, according to analysts.

In February, Zhipu AI appointed Guotai Haitong Securities and China International Capital Corp to advise its listing on the STAR Market.

MiniMax was founded on June 30, 2021, in Shanghai, and was officially listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on January 9 this year.

Pan Helin, a member of the Expert Committee for the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, told the Global Times on Sunday that MiniMax's A-share move could serve three purposes: raising funds for the coming AI model competition, creating an exit channel for early shareholders, and boosting the company's visibility and user base.

The timing aligns with a broader inflection point in the industry. In 2026, the rise of OpenClaw has accelerated the shift of LLMs from conversational interaction to task execution, speeding up commercialization and prompting investors to reassess the value of AI companies, the National Business Daily (NBD) newspaper reported.

Previously, most AI-related companies in China's A-share market were infrastructure or computing-power firms, such as Cambricon Technologies, MetaX and Moore Threads, while core LLM assets remained largely absent.

If MiniMax and Zhipu AI successfully complete their A-share listings, they would help fill that gap and shift valuation logic in the AI sector from hardware speculation toward core technology pricing, domestic media outlet the Shanghai Observer reported.

For MiniMax, which derives more than 70 percent of its revenue from overseas markets, a domestic listing offers more than capital.

According to Pan, the moves also reflect the rising popularity of the "A+H" dual listings among Chinese mainland-based AI firms, a structure that allows companies to expand their international footholds and increase the number of international investors.

Listing in the A-share market could also help MiniMax deepen its ties with domestic policy support and industrial ecosystems. As a start-up that gets most of its revenue overseas, a listing on the STAR Market could help the company expand in domestic scenarios and secure benchmark projects in the Chinese mainland, Pan noted.

After going through A-share listing counseling, MiniMax would not only meet domestic regulatory requirements but would also avoid barriers for large-scale deployment in the industry, enabling a dual-engine model of overseas cash flow and domestic market expansion, Pan said.

As of the close of trading in Hong Kong on Friday, MiniMax had a market capitalization of HK$263.5 billion, while Zhipu AI's market value stood at HK$711.1 billion, according to the NBD report.

MiniMax reported revenue of $79.038 million for the year ended on December 31, 2025, up 158.9 percent year-on-year. The company said that it had about 300 million global users and more than 1 million corporate customers, with the latter expanding fivefold in just six months.

Liu Gang, chief economist at the Chinese Institute of New Generation Artificial Intelligence Development Strategies, told the Global Times on Sunday that the capital market rally around AI reflects a broader industry transition. China's AI companies have moved beyond storytelling and concept-driven speculation into a phase defined by technology, deployment and commercialization, Liu said.

With both companies now firmly in the A-share pipeline, China's AI sector has unmistakably moved beyond the storytelling phase. The race is now one of technology, execution, and commercial endurance, and the capital markets are watching, Liu said.