BEIJING/HONG KONG (Reuters) – Chinese startup MiniMax, which is working on an AI solution similar to Microsoft-backed OpenAI’s ChatGPT, is nearing the completion of more than $250 million in funding. will be worth about $1.2 billion. A person familiar with the matter said.
The deal boosted shares of artificial intelligence companies, such as Alibaba (9988.HK), Huawei (HWT.UL) and Baidu (9888.HK), as the global AI buzz sparked by ChatGPT spread to China. ), to announce rival products.
Minimax’s latest funding has attracted new investors, including companies affiliated with tech giant Tencent, said two people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified because the information is private.
Minimax and Tencent (0700.HK) did not respond to Reuters requests for comment.
Minimax was founded in 2021 by several former SenseTime (0020.HK) employees, including Yang Junjie, the former vice president of a Chinese AI company, according to two other people familiar with the matter. It is said that
The funding is a sign of investor interest in what could be China’s answer to OpenAI, even as venture capital investments face pressure amid a volatile economic recovery and restrictions on US chip exports. It highlights the rise.
Chinese regulators have proposed increased scrutiny of emerging and popular technologies, with some investors and advisers expecting meaningful trading activity in the country’s broad AI-generated content space in the second half of the year. .
Big tech companies are already devoting significant resources to developing their own AI models, and startups led by well-known entrepreneurs like MiniMax are also jumping on board.
Wang Huiwen, co-founder of on-demand service giant Meituan (3690.HK), said it has raised $50 million from investors to launch a new AI company called Beijing GuangNian Technology.
Former Google China CEO Kai-Fu Lee has announced his new startup, Project AI 2.0. Wang Xiaochuan, founder of China’s second-largest search engine Sogou, announced in April that he had founded Baichuan Intelligence with $50 million in startup funding.
mini max shine
MiniMax was initially funded by miHoYo, the makers of the hit game Genshin Impact, two others said, but declined to provide details.
Other early investors include China’s Yunqi Partners and Future Capital, according to a statement from the venture capital fund.
MiHoYo did not respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
MiniMax’s Glow app now lets users create virtual characters, give them background stories, and chat with them on topics ranging from relationship advice to how to deal with hair loss. MiniMax’s AI models can also be used to solve a wide range of tasks.
MiniMax’s technology has received positive feedback, said 86Research analyst Charlie Chai.
“Kingsoft Cloud Group has worked with both MiniMax and Baidu’s ERNIE Bot on office productivity use cases. Feedback seems to favor MiniMax,” said Chai.
“Of course, it was still in the early stages of development, but this was a big surprise to me because I had such a high opinion of Baidu.”
Reporting by Roxanne Liu in Beijing and Josh Ye in Hong Kong.Editing: Himani Sarkar
Our standards: Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
