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Alibaba said to lead new financing round for Chinese AI firm MiniMax that would value the start-up at over US$2 billion
- The MiniMax deal would mark Alibaba’s second major AI start-up investment this year after leading Moonshot AI’s US$1 billion funding round in February
- MiniMax also counts Tencent and Shanghai-based video game developer miHoYo among its investors, according to a local media report
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Alibaba Group Holding is said to lead a new funding round of Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) start-up MiniMax, according to an investor familiar with the matter, as the e-commerce giant continues to bet on innovative mainland enterprises similar to ChatGPT creator OpenAI.
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Shanghai-based MiniMax, which was founded in 2021, is in the process of raising new funding that would value the company at more than US$2 billion, another investor with knowledge of the matter said. The two investors requested anonymity because they are not authorised to speak to the media.
A report by Bloomberg on Tuesday said MiniMax was looking to raise at least US$600 million in its latest funding round. MiniMax and Alibaba, owner of the South China Morning Post, did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Tuesday.
The AI start-up also counts social media and video gaming giant Tencent Holdings as well as Genshin Impact creator miHoYo among its investors, according to local media chinastarmarket.cn, which first reported the new funding round.
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How does China’s AI stack up against ChatGPT?
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The latest financing effort by MiniMax shows that interest in generative AI start-ups remains strong in mainland China, which led global investments into such firms in the first half of 2023.
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