MiniMax
MiniMax Group is a Shanghai-based Chinese artificial-intelligence company developing multimodal foundation models and consumer AI applications.
Last updated August 26, 2026
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Overview
MiniMax Group Inc., also known by its Chinese name 稀宇科技, is an artificial-intelligence company headquartered in Shanghai, China. The company develops large AI models spanning text, vision, speech, music, and video, while also operating consumer-facing applications built around conversational characters and generative media. Its principal consumer brands include Talkie for international markets and Xingye for China, while Hailuo AI provides generative media and model-based creative tools. MiniMax was established in December 2021 by a group of computer-vision researchers who had previously worked at SenseTime. The company began research and development operations in January 2022 and introduced its first text model, abab1, in April of that year. It subsequently developed the abab2 and abab3 models, with successive increases in capability and scale. Early backing reportedly included funding from miHoYo, and the company later attracted investment from major technology and venture-capital participants including Alibaba Group, GL Ventures, HongShan, IDG Capital, and Tencent. The company's first major consumer application was Glow, released in October 2022. Glow allowed users to create and converse with virtual characters. Its rapid adoption reportedly brought the service more than five million users within four months. Glow was later removed from Chinese app stores in 2023 and reintroduced through two separately positioned products: Talkie, launched internationally in June 2023, and Xingye, introduced for the Chinese market in September 2023. Talkie became one of MiniMax's most visible global products, combining generative dialogue with fictional and user-created characters. Reporting in 2024 described it as a highly downloaded entertainment application in the United States, with approximately 11 million monthly active users at that time. MiniMax expanded beyond conversational applications in 2024. In March it introduced Hailuo AI, a platform associated with text, music, and other generative functions. Hailuo later added the video-01 text-to-video model in September 2024 and audio capabilities in January 2025. The company also continued to develop general-purpose foundation models. Its ABAB 6.5 mixture-of-experts language-model series appeared in April 2024, followed by the MiniMax-01 product line in January 2025, including MiniMax-Text-01 and the vision-capable MiniMax-VL-01. Speech-02, released in April 2025, added text-to-speech support for more than 30 languages. In March 2024, Alibaba led a reported US$600 million financing round that valued MiniMax at approximately US$2.5 billion. MiniMax subsequently became a publicly listed company on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on 9 January 2026. The company is commonly grouped among China's so-called six AI tigers, a label used for prominent Chinese private-sector AI startups competing in foundation models and generative applications. MiniMax's business model combines infrastructure and model development with branded applications. Its model portfolio is intended for direct use by developers and businesses, while Talkie, Xingye, and Hailuo AI provide more accessible interfaces for consumers. The company also faces the regulatory and intellectual-property risks common to generative-AI providers. In 2025, major entertainment companies sued it in the United States over alleged copyright infringement involving Hailuo AI. In 2026, Anthropic accused MiniMax and other Chinese AI companies of using fraudulent accounts to obtain interactions with Claude for model-distillation purposes; these allegations were reported publicly but do not by themselves establish liability.
History
MiniMax was founded in December 2021 in Shanghai by several computer-vision researchers with backgrounds at SenseTime. Its early development focused on building proprietary large models rather than launching immediately as a conventional consumer software company. The company began research and development operations in January 2022 and released abab1, its first text model, in April. abab2 followed in June, and abab3 arrived in October with a larger parameter count. Early financing reportedly included support from miHoYo. The company's first prominent consumer service was Glow, launched in October 2022. Glow allowed users to create virtual characters and conduct open-ended conversations with them. The service reportedly exceeded five million users within four months, demonstrating the appeal of character-based conversational AI before the market had fully matured. Glow was later removed from Chinese app stores in 2023. MiniMax reorganized the concept under two brands: Talkie, introduced for international markets in June 2023, and Xingye, or 星野, launched for Chinese users in September 2023. Talkie became a major part of MiniMax's international consumer strategy. The application supports conversations with AI characters and has included simulations of public figures and fictional personas. In July 2024, reporting described Talkie as one of the most-downloaded free entertainment applications in the United States and estimated its monthly active users at roughly 11 million. The service illustrated MiniMax's approach of using foundation models in branded, highly accessible consumer products rather than relying solely on enterprise API sales. MiniMax broadened its product scope in 2024. Hailuo AI was launched in March as a generative-AI platform associated with text and music generation. In September, the company released video-01, a text-to-video model under the Hailuo brand. Hailuo later added audio functions in January 2025. Public reporting also raised questions about the system's ability to reproduce recognizable television-channel logos in generated videos, highlighting the intellectual-property and content-moderation issues surrounding generative media. The model portfolio continued to develop in parallel. MiniMax released the ABAB 6.5 mixture-of-experts language-model series in April 2024. In January 2025 it presented the MiniMax-01 family, comprising MiniMax-Text-01 for general language tasks and MiniMax-VL-01 with visual capabilities. Speech-02 followed in April 2025 and supported more than 30 languages for text-to-speech use cases. MiniMax-M1 was released in June 2025. Later model releases listed for 2026 included MiniMax-M2.5, M2.5-Lightning, MiniMax-M2.7, and MiniMax-M3. Financing helped MiniMax scale its research and commercialization efforts. In March 2024, Alibaba Group led a reported US$600 million financing round that valued the company at about US$2.5 billion. Other reported investors included GL Ventures, HongShan, IDG Capital, and Tencent. On 9 January 2026, MiniMax completed an initial public offering on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The company is frequently described as one of China's six AI tigers, a group of prominent Chinese AI startups competing in foundation models and generative applications. MiniMax operates across several layers of the AI value chain. Its foundation models support language, vision, speech, audio, and video capabilities; its developer and platform products expose those capabilities to users; and its consumer brands package them into character conversation and creative-media experiences. This combination gives the company multiple routes to market but also exposes it to questions concerning copyright, likeness, data use, safety, and competition. The company has faced significant legal and reputational scrutiny. In September 2025, Disney, Universal, and Warner Bros. Discovery filed a copyright lawsuit in the United States alleging that Hailuo AI infringed protected characters and related works. In February 2026, Anthropic accused MiniMax and two other Chinese AI companies of operating thousands of fraudulent accounts to produce more than 16 million interactions with Claude and use the resulting information to improve their own models through distillation. These matters are allegations reported in the reference material, and their ultimate legal outcomes are not established here.
- 2026
Hong Kong public listing
[1]MiniMax held its initial public offering on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on 9 January.
- 2025
MiniMax-01 and Speech-02 released
[1]The company released the MiniMax-01 model line and Speech-02 text-to-speech model.
- 2024
Major financing round
[1]Alibaba led a reported US$600 million financing round valuing MiniMax at about US$2.5 billion.
- 2024
Hailuo AI and ABAB 6.5 launch
[1]MiniMax launched Hailuo AI, later added video-01, and released the ABAB 6.5 model series.
- 2023
Talkie and Xingye replace Glow branding
[1]Talkie launched internationally and Xingye launched in China after Glow was removed from Chinese app stores.
- 2022
Initial language models released
[1]The company began R&D operations and released abab1, followed by abab2 and abab3 during the year.
- 2022
Glow launches
[1]MiniMax introduced its first major consumer application for conversations with virtual characters.
- 2021
MiniMax is founded
[1]MiniMax was established in December by former SenseTime computer-vision researchers.
Products and positioning
A Chinese full-stack generative-AI company combining proprietary multimodal foundation models with globally distributed consumer applications and creative AI services.
AI character and conversational application · 2023
Talkie
Talkie is MiniMax's international consumer application for creating and chatting with AI characters. It packages conversational models in an entertainment-oriented interface and supports fictional, user-created, and simulated public-figure personas. The product became one of MiniMax's most visible overseas applications and was reported in 2024 to have substantial United States usage.
AI character and conversational application · 2023
Xingye
Xingye is the Chinese-market successor brand to Glow. It enables users to interact with virtual characters through generative dialogue and represents MiniMax's localized consumer-app strategy in China.
Generative AI platform · 2024
Hailuo AI
Hailuo AI is MiniMax's generative-media platform. It has been associated with text, music, video, and audio capabilities, including the video-01 text-to-video model and later audio functions. The service gives consumers and creators an interface for producing media from natural-language instructions.
Large language models · 2022
ABAB model series
The ABAB family was MiniMax's early text-model line, beginning with abab1 in 2022 and progressing through abab2, abab3, and the ABAB 6.5 mixture-of-experts series. It represents the company's initial foundation-model research and commercialization work.
Multimodal foundation models · 2025
MiniMax-01
MiniMax-01 is a product family introduced in January 2025. It includes MiniMax-Text-01 for general language tasks and MiniMax-VL-01, which adds visual capabilities. The line extends MiniMax's model portfolio beyond conversational consumer applications.
Text-to-speech model · 2025
Speech-02
Speech-02 is a text-to-speech model released in April 2025. It supports more than 30 languages and is intended for multilingual synthetic-voice and audio-generation applications.
Controversies
2026
Anthropic allegations concerning model distillation
Anthropic accused MiniMax and two other Chinese AI companies of using thousands of fraudulent accounts to generate more than 16 million Claude interactions for improving their own models. The claim is presented as an allegation, not a proven finding.
2025
Copyright lawsuit concerning Hailuo AI
Disney, Universal, and Warner Bros. Discovery sued MiniMax in the United States, alleging that Hailuo AI infringed copyrighted characters and related works. The reference material does not establish the outcome.
Brand decisions
2026
Complete Hong Kong IPOOtherBackground
MiniMax had expanded its model portfolio and consumer applications and attracted substantial private financing.
Action taken
The company held its initial public offering on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on 9 January 2026.
Aftermath
MiniMax became a publicly listed AI company; the supplied material does not provide a ticker or trading data.
2024
Expand Hailuo AI into video generationProduct launchBackground
MiniMax had launched Hailuo AI as a generative-media platform and sought to broaden its capabilities.
Action taken
The company released the video-01 text-to-video model under the Hailuo AI brand.
Aftermath
Hailuo AI became a central consumer-facing generative-media offering, while also attracting copyright scrutiny.
2023
Split Glow into region-specific successor brandsStrategyBackground
Glow achieved rapid adoption but was later removed from Chinese app stores.
Action taken
MiniMax relaunched the concept as Talkie for international markets and Xingye for China.
Aftermath
The change created separate regional brands and supported the company's international consumer-app expansion.
Recent events
- 2026
MiniMax becomes publicly listed in Hong Kong[1]
Other
MiniMax completed its initial public offering and began trading on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on 9 January 2026.
- 2025
MiniMax introduces MiniMax-01 model line[1]
Product launch
The MiniMax-01 family included a general-purpose text model and a vision-capable model.
- 2024
Alibaba leads major MiniMax financing round[1]
M&A
Alibaba Group led a reported US$600 million financing round for MiniMax, with the company valued at approximately US$2.5 billion.
- 2024
MiniMax launches ABAB 6.5 model series[1]
Product launch
MiniMax introduced the ABAB 6.5 series, described as a mixture-of-experts language-model family.
- 2024
Hailuo AI expands into generative video[1]
Product launch · Product generation
MiniMax launched the video-01 text-to-video model through Hailuo AI in September 2024.
Sources7 sources
- 1MiniMax Groupen.wikipedia.org
- 2接连冲高累涨超11%！MiniMax发布AI创作工具Design 获机构看多与“入通”利好共振 _ 东方财富网finance.eastmoney.com
- 3稀宇科技推出MiniMaxDesign_业界_科技频道首页_财经网 - CAIJING.COM.CNtech.caijing.com.cn
- 4MiniMax 发布 IPO 辅导第二期进展，加速推进上市合规完善chinaz.com
- 5MiniMax 发布 Music3 音乐模型：给歌词和描述，可生成最长 5 分钟歌曲chinaz.com
- 6MiniMax Design 发布，释放 H3 多模态视频模型生产力finance.sina.com.cn
- 7MiniMax launches M3.1 Flash model, says it cuts AI agent costs by 70% - SiliconANGLEsiliconangle.com
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