MiniMax plans to raise about HK$16 billion, CEO promises zero salary

Chinese AI model company MiniMax announced a plan to raise about HK$16 billion through share placement and convertible bonds. The funds will mainly be used for AI infrastructure and model R&D, plus the global commercialization of its AI product Harness.

The fundraising includes placing 35.6 million A-shares and issuing HK$6.5 billion in convertible bonds. About 80% of the funds, around HK$12.766 billion, will go into model training, inference, and infrastructure upgrades.

On the same day, founder and CEO Yan Junjie sent an internal letter saying he will stop taking any salary until the company achieves AGI. He will also give away 4% of his personal shares to motivate the team and donate 1% of shares to support the open-source community.