The first surge of the Year of the Horse, AI stocks are going wild

The wealth-creating effect of AI is indeed astonishing.

The AI craze in the Hong Kong stock market has been burning from before the holiday until after, and in this frenzy, MiniMax and Zhipu are undoubtedly the most dazzling stars.

On February 20, Hong Kong stocks welcomed the first trading day of the Lunar Year of the Horse, and the domestic AI large models’ “twin stars” both saw their stock prices surge. By the close, Zhipu soared 42.72%, closing at HKD 725 per share; MiniMax also rose over 14%, closing at HKD 970 per share, with both companies’ market caps surpassing HKD 300 billion.

What does HKD 300 billion mean? In comparison, JD.com’s current market value is about HKD 294.58 billion. This means that these two AI companies, both less than ten years old, have quietly surpassed the long-established internet giants that have been operating for over twenty years.

The wealth-creating effect of AI is truly remarkable.

Stock prices up over 400% in two months

The stock price myth of MiniMax and Zhipu didn’t start with the Spring Festival but was foreshadowed from the very beginning of their listings. As among the first domestic AI large model companies to go public in Hong Kong, both firms have experienced a spectacular upward trend since their IPOs.

Let’s start with Zhipu. Known 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 HKD 116.2 per share. On its first trading day, it achieved a “good start,” with a market cap reaching HKD 57.89 billion. Notably, during its pre-IPO public offering, it was oversubscribed nearly 1,160 times, reflecting high market enthusiasm.

After listing, Zhipu’s stock price steadily increased. Especially in February, the mysterious anonymous model “Pony Alpha” exploded in overseas communities. Market rumors suggested that this model was the upcoming new generation of Zhipu’s large model, GLM-5. Stimulated by this news, Zhipu’s stock price launched into a “rocket” mode, with a cumulative increase of over 110% in just four trading days from February 9 to 12.

On February 12, Zhipu officially open-sourced its new flagship model GLM-5 and announced a price increase of at least 30% for the GLM Coding Plan subscription. The next trading day, the stock surged by 20.65%. On February 20, the first trading day of the Year of the Horse, Zhipu soared 42.72%, adding HKD 96.7 billion in market value in a single day—equivalent to the size of Bilibili.

In just 43 days since listing, Zhipu’s stock price has increased by over 524%, with a market cap reaching HKD 323.24 billion.

Compared to Zhipu, MiniMax’s debut was even more impressive. On January 9, MiniMax listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, closing the day up 109.09% at HKD 345 per share, with a market cap jumping to HKD 106.7 billion.

Since February, MiniMax’s stock price has followed the AI sector’s overall rise, climbing from HKD 515 on February 9 to HKD 970 on the fourth day of the Lunar New Year, nearly doubling in just over ten days. This represents a nearly 90% increase, and at the issue price of HKD 165, it has surged 4.88 times, with the market cap rising from HKD 106.7 billion on the first day to HKD 304.23 billion.

It is worth noting that on February 13, MiniMax officially announced the launch of its new generation text model MiniMax M2.5, which is widely regarded as a key catalyst for its continued stock price strength.

From the “good start” on the first day to a more than fourfold increase in stock price, the IPO performance of Zhipu and MiniMax has been perfect. Their strong performance in the Hong Kong market has not only made secondary market investors very profitable but also enabled their employee stock ownership plans to realize significant gains.

According to previous prospectuses, both companies launched employee stock ownership plans before going public. Zhipu’s employee ownership ratio reached 51.2%, and MiniMax’s was nearly full staff ownership. Based on current market value, a considerable number of core employees have achieved “financial freedom” through their holdings.

Investors enjoy a prosperous start to the year

Of course, compared to retail investors and employees who have held shares since the company’s early days in the secondary market, the most notable beneficiaries of this wealth feast are the early-stage institutional investors.

Let’s start with Zhipu. It originated from the technological成果 of Tsinghua University’s Department of Computer Science, stemming from the Tsinghua Knowledge Engineering (KEG) Laboratory established in 1996. The key figure and chief scientist, Tang Jie, comes from this lab. He led the development of China’s first trillion-parameter open-source large model “悟道 2.0” and designed the GLM series architecture, promoting自主化 of domestic large model technology.

The company’s CEO, Zhang Peng, graduated from Tsinghua University’s Department of Computer Science and is a leading PhD in Tsinghua innovation. Chairman Liu Debing previously served as deputy director of the Big Data Research Center at Tsinghua Data Science Institute.

With a dual background of “Tsinghua lineage” and “scientist entrepreneurship,” Zhipu has attracted significant capital attention since its inception, quickly becoming a “star project” in the primary market.

According to CVSource by Tianzhong Jiacuan, before going public, Zhipu received investments from over 50 institutions, including Zhongke Chuangxing, Dacheng Caizhi, Junlian Capital, Qiming Venture Partners, Today Capital, Lightspeed China Partners, Sequoia China, Hillhouse, Yunhui Capital, China Merchants Venture, and others. It also attracted strategic investments from Meituan, Ant Group, Alibaba, Tencent, Xiaomi, and regional state-owned capital from Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Tianjin, and Hangzhou.

Currently, these pre-IPO investors are still under lock-up, but based on the current stock price, their unrealized gains are substantial.

Early investors’ returns are especially impressive. In 2019, Zhipu received a RMB 40 million angel round investment from Zhongke Chuangxing, with a post-investment valuation of RMB 375 million. As of now, Zhongke Chuangxing still holds about 1.34% of Zhipu. With the company’s market cap soaring to HKD 323.24 billion, its stake is worth approximately HKD 4.33 billion.

Looking at MiniMax, in early 2022, former SenseTime vice president Yan Junjie resigned and gave up his stock options to start MiniMax, focusing on full-modal model development.

Over the past three years, the company has assembled top-tier investors, including Hillhouse, IDG, Sequoia, Matrix Partners, MingShi, China Life, and others, as well as industry investors like MiHoYo, Alibaba, Tencent, and Xiaohongshu.

Among them, Hillhouse, MiHoYo, Yunqi Capital, and IDG were the earliest angel investors, with a post-investment valuation of US$200 million (about RMB 1.38 billion). Based on the February 20 closing price, these early investors’ paper returns have exceeded 100 times.

When the lock-up periods of both companies expire, these institutions will truly reap the harvest.

AI large models are entering a “money-making” mode

In fact, the rapid rise of MiniMax and Zhipu’s stock prices is just a microcosm of the recent capital market enthusiasm for the AI large model track. The funding stories in the primary market are equally remarkable.

The earliest news came from “Moon of Darkness.” On December 31, Moon of Darkness announced a $500 million Series C funding round led by IDG, with oversubscriptions from Alibaba, Tencent, and other existing shareholders. The company’s post-money valuation reached $4.3 billion.

Subsequently, on January 26, 2026, Jiē Yuè Star announced over RMB 5 billion in Series B+ funding, with investors including the National Fund of China, China Life, Pudong Venture Capital, Xuhui Capital, Wuxi Liangxi Fund, Xiamen International Trade, and Huawei Technologies, with Tencent, Qiming Venture Partners, and Wuyuan further participating.

This round of funding set a new record for the largest single investment in China’s large model sector over the past 12 months.

The enthusiasm shows no signs of waning. Just recently, on February 17, media reports indicated that Moon of Darkness was about to complete a new round of over $700 million in funding, led by Alibaba, Tencent, Wuyuan, and Jiǔ’ān, with the latest valuation surpassing $10 billion.

In addition, Baichuan Intelligence, one of the “Six Little Tigers” of AI large models, has also signaled capital interest, planning an IPO around 2027.

In just three months, massive funding news has been pouring in, driven by technological breakthroughs and promising commercialization prospects, leading to a revaluation of capital.

As an early investor in Zhipu, Zhongke Chuangxing stated that the capabilities of large models are experiencing unprecedented leaps. Breakthroughs in language, multimodal, video, coding, and tool invocation are pushing these models from “usable” to “highly usable,” opening a significant window of opportunity for large model dividends.

However, it is foreseeable that as competition intensifies, future funding and resources will increasingly concentrate in a few leading companies.