Welcome back—this week we are looking at two important but different Chinese IPOs that are coming soon.
Before we start, last week in ATR we wrote about AI killing cheap smartphones, Southeast Asia’s looming data sovereignty crisis, ByteDance spending big on AI, Taiwan making bank from the AI boom, Airwallex upping its PR game and corporates flocking to Korea’s top crypto exchange.
MiniMax is on the charge after it revealed major growth ahead of reports that it is planning to list in China, following its initial IPO in Hong Kong in January.
The company raised $620 million for its HKEX listing and its share price is up nearly 5x since then. Rival Zhipu went public days before, and its shares have surged from 131.50 HKD to 1,492 HKD at the time of writing, that’s over 10x and it shows the appetite that retail investors are showing for AI stocks. It’s little wonder then that MiniMax wants greater exposure.
Bloomberg reports that MiniMax has “begun preparations for a domestic listing, according to a regulatory filing” and you’d imagine that Zhipu is undergoing the same process. The duo will need to raise serious capital to compete with DeepSeek, which reportedly remains in talks to raise $3-$4 billion from its first-ever external round of funding.
MiniMax has started to be more vocal in preparation for this next listing after it revealed that its global enterprise and developer user base has grown fivefold over the last six months. The company also claimed its ARR has more than doubled in the last two months to reach $300 million.
Those numbers fall far short of its US peers, Anthropic claims $14 billion ARR, but the narrative line is that MiniMax isn’t just relying on a Chinese audience since it has made a breakthrough overseas. That’s a key battleground for China’s top AI providers, with DeepSeek the obvious example as it put China on the map when it burst on the scene in late 2024/early 2025.
In one blow, however, MiniMax failed to dismiss a California lawsuit from Disney, Universal and Warner Bros Discovery which claim IP theft tied to its Hailuo image and video AI system.
Right on time for its newest push, the firm released its newest AI model:
MiniMax (official)@MiniMax_AI
Introducing MiniMax M3: The First Open-Weights Model to Combine Three Frontier Capabilities
– Coding & Agentic Frontier: 59.0% SWE-Bench Pro, 66.0% Terminal Bench 2.1, 34.8% SWE-fficiency, 28.8% KernelBench Hard, 74.2% MCP Atlas
– MiniMax Sparse Attention scales context to 1M
–
1:59 AM · Jun 1, 2026 · 151K Views
137 Replies · 269 Reposts · 1.8K Likes
It’s shaping up to be a pivotal second half of the year for China’s AI challengers.
Housekeeping: ATR is in half-term mode this week so the newsletter will publish on Wednesday and Friday only this week, unless there’s earth shattering news. Next week, we’ll be at Super AI in Singapore.
See you again on Wednesday,
Jon
Make sure you follow us on LinkedIn or WhatsApp so you don’t miss a single story or insight.
Speaking of major AI IPOs in China, memory giant CXMT is gearing up to raise $4.3 billion in what could be China’s largest listing since 2022.
ChangXin Memory Technologies, to use its full name, specialises in DRAM chips which are used in smartphones, PCs, servers and other technology products. The ten-year-old company just received approval to list on the STAR Board, the Shanghai Stock Exchange’s market for tech companies.
CXMT is the world’s fourth largest DRAM maker worldwide, and China’s only competitor. It trails the likes of Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron, which are going through a boom period as demand rockets thanks to the growth of AI. We haven’t seen a breakdown of its financials, but, in an early tease, CXMT claimed revenue in Q1 increased by 719% to reach $7.4 billion.
If China is to build its own self-sufficient tech stack, memory is a key part so CXMT will have a major role to play. There’s every suggestion that it won’t stop there, and overseas expansion would be a target in the same way Chinese companies sold smartphones, networking gear and more internationally.
Given the stellar performance of Samsung and SK Hynix this year, CXMT is sitting in a good position hence the potentially blockbuster IPO figures.
China is restricting overseas travel for top AI professionals at companies including Alibaba and DeepSeek, extending state controls deeper into the private sector link
ByteDance’s Seedance 2.0 drew attention at Cannes after two shorts made on the platform were selected for Marché du Film and AI feature Hell Grind premiered at a parallel summit link
ByteDance is offering discounted stock options tied to Seed AI to retain staff amid poaching from rivals including Tencent link
Huawei proposed a chip design approach that prioritises transmission speed over shrinking semiconductors, though it remains unclear whether it is a true breakthrough link
Huawei’s He Tingbo has emerged as a central figure in China’s semiconductor self-reliance push after leading the company’s chip development through years of US sanctions link
Every domestically made humanoid robot in China will be assigned a unique digital ID under a new national tracking platform aimed at setting standards and tightening oversight link
Iran acquired Chinese technology to cut its 90 million citizens off from the global internet permanently, a senior official says link
A man was executed for murdering a prominent gaming tycoon link
China is upgrading its surveillance network with AI that automates real-time tracking, behavioural analysis and unrest prediction link
AI chips were added to Beijing’s official secure and reliable technology assessments, widening a state push to replace Western products with domestic alternatives link
Alibaba’s Qwen3.7-Max ranked fourth on a major coding leaderboard, making it the only company besides Anthropic to place in the top five link
Chinese companies will invest another €940M ($1.1B) in Serbia from July across auto parts, humanoid robots, energy and AI link
Beijing is warning tech companies not to replace workers with AI as youth unemployment stays high link
EU regulators have opened a full investigation into JD.com’s $2.5B bid for Ceconomy over possible Chinese state subsidies link
And EU regulators fined Temu €200M ($232M) for failing to curb illegal product sales, with more penalties possible link
But Germany and Spain are pushing back against EU plans to ban Chinese telecom suppliers including Huawei under new cybersecurity rules link
JD.com founder Liu Qiangdong says the company will do everything possible to protect jobs as AI and robotics spread across its 900,000-strong workforce link
BYD unveiled what it says is China’s first automotive-grade 4nm chip for self-driving cars, escalating its rivalry with Huawei link
Wingtech created an independent management structure for Nexperia’s Chinese unit as it fights to regain control of the Dutch chipmaker link
HongShan emerged as the lead bidder for Blackstone’s 45% stake in Leica Camera and may pursue a listing for the company link
A tech tourism boom is drawing visitors willing to pay up to $9,000 for tours of EV factories, robotaxis and AI and robotics companies link
Oversight of food delivery platforms will be tightened by forcing verification of restaurant licences and real locations link
AMD CEO Lisa Su’s understated China approach is drawing contrast with Jensen Huang’s more theatrical style link
In earnings:
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Pony AI raised its 2026 robotaxi fleet target to 3,500 vehicles after Q1 revenue jumped 145% to $34.3M and beat estimates link
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Xiaomi’s Q1 net income fell 57% to 4.72B yuan as rising memory prices hit its smartphone business, prompting a HK$20B buyback link
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Meanwhile, Xiaomi plans to invest more than 60B yuan ($8.8B) in AI over the next three years as it looks to keep its smartphones and EVs competitive link
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Kuaishou beat Q1 estimates with 33.7B yuan ($5B) in revenue as commercialisation of its AI video generator Kling accelerated link
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PDD missed quarterly revenue estimates as domestic competition overshadowed a recovery at Temu, with sales up 11% to 106B yuan ($15.6B) link
Zomato founder Deepinder Goyal says the company has a better shot than Amazon at winning quick commerce link
Swiggy says it will prioritise profitability over matching the spending binge of quick commerce rivals, even if that costs users link
Udaan is in talks to raise $50-60M from M&G Prudential and Lightspeed at a flat $1.8B valuation in what could be its final private round before an IPO link
Tata Electronics plans to begin chip packaging for global automotive and industrial clients at its upcoming Jagiroad OSAT facility, building on early shipments from Vemagal and India’s chip ambitions link
Fairdeal.Market raised $15M from Bertelsmann India Investments, Water Bridge Ventures and Incubate Asia Fund link
India’s VC sector is rushing to launch deeptech funds to tap the government’s research and innovation pool link
Human Archive raised $8.2M to use India’s gig economy to capture first-person task data for robot training link
Peak XV and Activate are reportedly in talks to back Wispr Flow in a round that would value the voice dictation startup at $2B link
India is stress-testing sensitive software against Anthropic’s unreleased Mythos model, with Infosys, TCS and CERT-In probing risks in secure environments link
Global companies are using Indian tech hubs and AI to bring more creative work in-house and cut reliance on ad agencies link
Netrasemi launched its A2000 edge AI chip, with commercial production due next year link
Indian founders are using a court ruling against Google’s ad business to revive criticism of competitor keyword advertising link
Byju Raveendran was sentenced to six months in jail by a Singapore court for contempt after repeatedly defying asset-related orders link
But Raveendran says he has reached a settlement in principle with lenders after Singapore’s contempt ruling link
Optical components maker Wuxi Taclink is considering a Singapore listing that could raise at least $156M and make it the first mainland China-traded company to do so link
Singapore’s GIC and Temasek have joined Anthropic’s $65B Series H, valuing the AI company at $965B link
Indonesia blocked Polymarket as it widens its crackdown on online betting link
Thailand’s Line Man Wongnai is expanding beyond food delivery and targeting a 2027 IPO as it doubles down with new services and AI investment link
Crypto platform Hodlnaut’s former CEO Zhu Juntao was charged in Singapore with six counts of fraud over TerraUSD exposure link
Singapore’s VC market fell for a third straight year in 2025, with deal value down 34% to $4.6B link
Singapore’s MarsLab unveiled an AI inference infrastructure roadmap for enterprise and edge deployment link
Sea has built a dedicated AI investment team under the president’s office to scout startups globally and speed its shift beyond ecommerce link
Sakura Internet may raise capital spending to as much as ¥30B ($190M) this fiscal year as AI demand pushes server usage to 80-90% and forces more data centre expansion link
Japanese electronic component makers posted record fiscal 2025 shipments of ¥4.61T ($28.9B), but they continue to lose share to Chinese and Taiwanese rivals link
SoftBank is lining up IPOs for energy developer SB Energy and autonomous robotics spinout Roze link
About 30 major Japanese companies are considering investing in a new SoftBank venture focused on building domestic physical AI link
Japan passed a law creating a powerful interministerial body to scrutinise foreign investment more closely link
SoftBank plans to invest up to €75B ($87B) to build 5 gigawatts of AI data centre capacity in France link
Following the flurry of deals for Upbit parent Dunamu, OKX Ventures and Korea Investment & Securities will each invest 80B won ($53M) for a 19.6% stake in rival crypto exchange Coinone, pending approval link
Samsung’s largest union approved a pay deal that gives chip workers an average bonus of about $340,000, averting a strike link
Samsung Electronics plans to invest $1.5B in Vietnam to build a semiconductor testing plant with operations due to start in November 2027 link
Seoul prosecutors have charged five people behind Solana memecoin CatFi over an alleged rug pull link
Samsung began shipping samples of its 12-layer HBM4E memory to major clients, taking an early lead in AI accelerator components link
XCENA, a South Korea and US-based chip startup focused on near-memory compute for AI inference, raised $135M at a $570M valuation link
Kakao workers are threatening to strike in June in a dispute over profit sharing link
Hong Kong finalised rules for licensing firms that advise on and manage virtual assets, a milestone in its push to become a crypto hub link
Taiwan prosecutors say three people smuggled Nvidia AI chips to China through Japan by falsifying export documents for Supermicro servers link
MediaTek began working with Intel on advanced chip packaging as it bets on AI hardware and infrastructure demand link
