MiniMax founder and CEO Yan Junjie has informed staff that he’ll cease taking a wage till the Chinese language AI firm achieves synthetic basic intelligence (AGI). In an inside memo {that a} MiniMax govt publicly shared on X, Yan additionally pledged to switch a part of his private shareholding to reward staff and assist open-source AI improvement.The announcement got here alongside MiniMax’s plans to lift roughly HK$16.04 billion (about $2.05 billion) by a Hong Kong share placement and zero-coupon convertible bonds to fund AI infrastructure, analysis and improvement, commercialisation and basic company operations.
Learn MiniMax CEO’s memo to staff about not taking his wage till AGI is achieved
Within the memo addressed to staff, which was shared on X, Yan wrote (translated from Chinese language): “Pricey colleagues,Markets fluctuate and exterior noise abounds, but our ahead trajectory stays unchanged.Standing on the forefront of the business, we perceive the true tempo of technological evolution—and the long-term worth we’re creating and accumulating—higher than anybody else.From at present till the day we obtain AGI, I’ll not draw a wage from the corporate.Over the following 4 years, I’ll allocate shares equal to 4% of the corporate’s complete fairness—held in my private title—to incentivize staff members who’ve fought alongside the corporate and created worth collectively over the long run. Moreover, I’ll put aside 1% of the shares to determine a devoted fund to offer ongoing assist for the event of related open-source communities.I’ll commit all my time, power, and sources to this endeavor. That is the long-term dedication I make because the founder.We are going to hold going till we get there.Intelligence with EverybodyI/O”In keeping with the corporate, the 4% fairness allocation might be distributed over the following 4 years to staff, whereas one other 1% of Yan’s private shareholding might be used to determine a fund supporting open-source communities and the broader AI ecosystem.
MiniMax plans contemporary fundraising
MiniMax is searching for to lift roughly HK$16.04 billion by the problem of 35.6 million new Class A shares and HK$6.5 billion in zero-coupon convertible bonds maturing in 2027. The share placement is priced at HK$268 per share and is anticipated to lift about HK$9.54 billion. The convertible bonds carry a conversion worth of HK$335 per share.The corporate mentioned the proceeds might be used to increase AI infrastructure, spend money on analysis and improvement, speed up commercialisation and assist basic company operations. MiniMax went public in Hong Kong in January, elevating roughly HK$4.8 billion at a valuation of about $6.5 billion.
Competitors in China’s AI market
MiniMax has confronted rising competitors from Chinese language AI builders, together with DeepSeek, Zhipu and Moonshot AI. The corporate’s newest flagship mannequin, MiniMax M3, was launched in June. It includes a one-million-token context window, multimodal capabilities for picture and video understanding and the corporate’s MiniMax Sparse Consideration structure, which is designed to scale back long-context inference prices whereas bettering coding and AI agent efficiency.MiniMax additionally reported $79 million in income for 2025, a 159% year-over-year enhance, with over 70% of its income generated exterior China. The corporate additionally posted a internet lack of $1.87 billion, largely on account of modifications within the truthful worth of monetary devices following its preliminary public providing.