The IPO record for AI companies may soon be broken. On December 21, MiniMax (Xiyu Technology), a global leader in artificial general intelligence (AGI), filed its post-hearing information pack (PHIP) version of the prospectus, potentially becoming the fastest AI company to go public from inception.
For a loss-making specialized tech company, what are investors willing to pay for? MiniMax’s answer: its products.
MiniMax has placed its bet on the consumer (C-end) segment, with AI-native applications directly targeting end-users accounting for over 70% of its revenue. According to the prospectus, MiniMax reported revenue of $3.46 million in 2023, $30.52 million in 2024, and $53.44 million in the first nine months of 2025, representing year-on-year growth exceeding 170%.
As of September 30, 2025, MiniMax had over 212 million individual users across more than 200 countries and regions, along with 130,000 enterprise clients from over 100 countries. Overseas markets contributed more than 70% of its revenue.
With the global AGI sector transitioning from a "hundred-model battle" to consolidation, MiniMax’s IPO journey has drawn significant market attention. It offers a glimpse into how China’s native AI model companies are investing heavily in R&D, expanding aggressively, and exploring sustainable commercialization paths after ChatGPT ignited global competition.
**AI-Native Products Drive Growth** As a rapidly expanding, R&D-driven AI company, MiniMax’s financials reflect the "classic AI narrative" of high growth paired with high losses.
Founded in early 2022, MiniMax only began generating revenue in 2023. Its prospectus shows revenue of $3.46 million in 2023, $30.52 million in 2024, and $53.44 million in the first nine months of 2025—a 175% increase from $19.45 million in the same period the previous year.
The bulk of this growth came from "AI-native products," which contributed $21.81 million (71.4% of total revenue) in 2024 and surged to $38.02 million (71.1%) in the first nine months of 2025. In contrast, "AI enterprise services" revenue grew steadily but lagged behind, reaching $15.42 million (28.9%) in the same period.
User expansion has been equally staggering. By September 30, 2025, MiniMax’s AI-native products had amassed over 212 million users across more than 200 countries and regions. Monthly active users (MAU) skyrocketed from 3.144 million in 2023 to 19.106 million in 2024 and further climbed to 27.622 million in the first nine months of 2025.
However, like all frontier tech companies in the investment phase, MiniMax’s financials are weighed down by soaring R&D and operational costs. Net losses widened from $73.729 million in 2022 to $269 million in 2023 and $465 million in 2024. In the first nine months of 2025, losses hit $512 million, surpassing the full-year 2024 figure.
R&D expenses, primarily cloud service costs for model training, dominated expenditures. Industry norms suggest initial AGI model development and training take 2–3 years, requiring sustained investment before generating commercial returns.
MiniMax’s R&D spending stood at $10.56 million in 2022, $70.002 million in 2023, $189 million in 2024, and $180 million in the first nine months of 2025. Yet, as a percentage of revenue, these costs declined sharply—from 2023% in 2023 to 619% in 2024 and 337% in the first nine months of 2025.
By 2025, MiniMax’s commercialization showed improvement. Adjusted net losses nearly stabilized year-on-year, reflecting effective cost control amid rapid growth. Gross margin rebounded from -24.7% in 2023 to 23.3% in the first nine months of 2025.
This turnaround stemmed from diversified revenue streams and disciplined spending. R&D expenses grew just 30% year-on-year in the first nine months of 2025, far below historical rates, while sales and marketing costs dropped 26%.
The trend aligns with its latest model upgrades. For instance, the MiniMax M1, launched in June 2025, achieved higher cost efficiency in both training and inference.
**Product Breakthroughs** MiniMax isn’t just a back-end "infrastructure" player. Its strategy revolves around packaging proprietary AGI models into hit consumer apps, creating a robust product portfolio.
The prospectus reveals that C-end revenue primarily comes from four core AI-native apps: Talkie/Starfield, Hailuo AI, MiniMax App, and MiniMax Voice. These span text, image, video, voice interaction, and AI agents, powered by MiniMax’s multimodal models (language, video, audio, and music generation).
Growth is led by Talkie/Starfield (a full-modal interaction platform) and Hailuo AI (a visual-generation platform), which generated $17.464 million and $18.75 million, respectively, in the first nine months of 2025.
Talkie/Starfield became the revenue leader shortly after launch, accounting for 63.7% of 2024 sales. Hailuo AI, introduced in late 2024, quickly demonstrated monetization potential, contributing 32.6% of revenue in the first nine months of 2025.
Hailuo AI drew global attention upon release. Tech reviewers praised its video outputs for color fidelity, physics simulation, emotional expression, prompt adherence, and coherence, noting that the "uncanny AI feel" was minimal.
Its Video-01 model (August 2024) and Hailuo AI product reached industry-leading standards. The upgraded Hailuo-02 (June 2025) ranked second globally in Artificial Analysis’s video benchmark, having generated over 590 million videos.
Paid user metrics confirm traction: Hailuo AI’s subscribers jumped to 311,100 by September 2025 (vs. 64,800 in full-year 2024), while Talkie’s paying users grew 184% year-on-year to 1.3904 million.
**Global Focus** Notably, overseas markets drive most of MiniMax’s revenue. Singapore and the U.S. contributed $12.98 million (24.3%) and $10.91 million (20.4%), respectively, in the first nine months of 2025, with other regions adding $15.14 million (28.4%). Combined, non-China markets delivered 73% of total revenue.
For many Chinese AI firms, domestic monetization remains challenging, pushing them to explore global opportunities.
MiniMax’s international GM Sheng Jingyuan noted that overseas markets offer simpler monetization and faster returns, presenting a "broader profit landscape."
Yet, global expansion also demands navigating complex legal, regulatory, and political hurdles—critical for sustainable growth.
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