Core Insights - MiniMax, a large model company, is nearing completion of a new funding round of approximately $300 million, with a post-money valuation exceeding $4 billion (around 300 billion yuan) [2] - The funding round includes contributions from listed companies, cross funds, and large state-owned platforms, specifically Shanghai State-owned Assets [2] - MiniMax is preparing for a potential IPO in Hong Kong, as reported by Bloomberg in June [2] Company Overview - MiniMax (Shanghai Xiyu Technology) was founded in December 2021 and is headquartered in Shanghai, focusing on the development of general artificial intelligence technology that integrates text, voice, and visual modalities [2] - The company has launched several products, including the ABAB series large models and applications like Glow and Hailuo AI [2] - The founder, Yan Junjie, previously served as Vice President at SenseTime and CTO of the Smart City Business Group [2] Funding History - In June 2023, MiniMax completed a $250 million funding round, achieving unicorn status [3] - The company had previously raised $600 million in a B round from Alibaba and over $250 million in an A round from Tencent Capital [2][3] - Early investors also include Yunqi Capital, Hillhouse Venture Capital, IDG, Mingshi Capital, and Mihayou, with no state-owned background investors in earlier rounds [2] Product Development - In December 2023, MiniMax released the first MoE architecture large model in China [3] - The company plans to launch the ABAB 6.5 series model in 2024 [3] - In January 2023, MiniMax open-sourced the MiniMax-01 series, which includes the MiniMax-Text-01 language model and the MiniMax-VL-01 visual multimodal model [3]