China AI Startup MiniMax Charts Global Expansion on Strong Domestic Growth
By Reuters | 02 Mar, 2026

By riding the popularity of low-cost open-source models pioneered by DeepSeek, MiniMax enjoyed 159% year-on-year jump in revenues.

Chinese artificial intelligence startup MiniMax aims to become a global AI platform company, it said on Monday, setting out plans for faster expansion and a broader product lineup after posting strong 2025 revenue growth.

The company reported a 159% year-on-year jump in revenue to $79 million, with more than 70% of sales outside China. 

Revenue from products built directly around AI, primarily consumer subscriptions, surged 143.4%, while its open platform and enterprise services segment saw similar growth.

The announcement was MiniMax's first earnings update since raising HK$4.8 billion ($614 million) in its Hong Kong initial public offering in January. 

The performance highlights rising demand for cheaper, open-source-based models from Chinese providers such as MiniMax and DeepSeek, which position themselves as lower-cost alternatives to proprietary U.S. systems.

DeepSeek focuses on text-based reasoning models and developer tools, while MiniMax emphasises multimodal capabilities spanning text, video and audio. 

On a post-earnings call, CEO Yan Junjie said MiniMax aims to compete as both a model maker and product platform, while keeping its open-source approach to attract outside developers.

The company plans to release its latest M3 model in the first half of this year.

However, MiniMax remains far smaller than U.S. competitors. OpenAI said its annualized revenue topped $20 billion in 2025.

MiniMax is also still loss-making, posting a net loss of $1.87 billion in 2025 compared with a $465.2 million loss a year earlier. Most of the 2025 loss came from changes in the value of financial instruments it holds. 

"We believe AI is not currently a zero-sum market, but rather one where annual incremental growth far exceeds the existing base," Yan said, highlighting opportunities in coding, office productivity and video generation.

($1 = 7.8216 Hong Kong dollars)

(Reporting by Liam Mo and Brenda Goh. Editing by Mark Potter)