The wealth creation effect of artificial intelligence is indeed remarkable.

The AI fervor in the Hong Kong stock market has continued from before the holiday into the post-holiday period. In this exuberant rally, MiniMax and KNOWLEDGE ATLAS have undoubtedly been the most prominent players.

On February 20th, the first trading day of the Year of the Horse, the stock prices of these two domestic AI model giants surged. By the market close, KNOWLEDGE ATLAS had skyrocketed 42.72% to HKD 725 per share, while MiniMax also rose over 14% to HKD 970 per share. The market capitalizations of both companies jointly surpassed the HKD 300 billion mark.

To put HKD 300 billion into perspective, JD.com's current market cap is approximately HKD 2,945.84 billion. This signifies that these two AI companies, established for less than a decade, have quietly surpassed the market value of a veteran internet giant that has been operating for over twenty years.

**Stock Prices Surge Over 400% in Two Months**

The remarkable stock performance of MiniMax and KNOWLEDGE ATLAS did not begin with the Spring Festival; the groundwork was laid from their initial public offerings. As among the first domestic large AI model companies to list in Hong Kong, both have experienced a substantial upward trend since going public.

First, looking at KNOWLEDGE ATLAS: as the "first global large model stock," it officially listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on January 8, 2026, with an IPO price of HKD 116.2 per share. It enjoyed a strong debut, with its market cap soaring to HKD 57.89 billion. Notably, during its pre-IPO public offering phase, it was oversubscribed by nearly 1,160 times, highlighting immense market enthusiasm.

Following its listing, KNOWLEDGE ATLAS's share price climbed steadily. Particularly in February, the mysterious anonymous model "Pony Alpha" gained significant traction in overseas communities. Market speculation suggested this model was KNOWLEDGE ATLAS's upcoming next-generation large model, GLM-5. Stimulated by this news, the company's stock entered a rapid ascent, surging over 110% at its peak in just four trading days from February 9th to 12th.

On February 12th, KNOWLEDGE ATLAS officially open-sourced its new flagship model, GLM-5, and simultaneously announced a price increase for its GLM Coding Plan subscriptions, with overall hikes starting from 30%. The very next trading session saw its stock price jump 20.65%. Then, on February 20th, the first trading day of the Lunar New Year, KNOWLEDGE ATLAS surged 42.72%, adding HKD 96.7 billion to its market capitalization in a single day—equivalent to the entire market value of a company like Bilibili.

In just 43 days since listing, KNOWLEDGE ATLAS's stock has accumulated a gain of over 524%, bringing its market cap to HKD 323.24 billion.

Compared to KNOWLEDGE ATLAS, MiniMax's debut was even more spectacular. On January 9th, MiniMax listed on the HKEX, closing up 109.09% on its first day at HKD 345 per share, directly pushing its market capitalization to HKD 106.7 billion.

Since February, MiniMax's stock price has risen in tandem with the broader AI sector, climbing from HKD 515 per share on February 9th to HKD 970 per share by the fourth day of the Lunar New Year—a gain of nearly 90% in just over ten days. Compared to its IPO price of HKD 165, this represents a staggering 488% increase. Its market cap has also grown from HKD 106.7 billion on its listing day to HKD 304.23 billion.

It is worth noting that on February 13th, MiniMax officially announced the launch of its new-generation text model, MiniMax M2.5, which is widely considered a key catalyst for its sustained strong stock performance.

From their successful IPOs to achieving gains exceeding 400%, the capital market debut of KNOWLEDGE ATLAS and MiniMax has been nearly flawless. Their robust performance in the Hong Kong market has not only generated substantial profits for secondary market investors but has also led to a major payoff for their employee stock ownership plans.

According to previous prospectuses, both companies implemented ESOPs before going public. KNOWLEDGE ATLAS had an employee ownership ratio of 51.2%, while MiniMax approached nearly universal employee ownership. Based on current market valuations, a significant number of core employees have likely achieved financial freedom through their shareholdings.

**Investors Reap Early Year Gains**

Naturally, compared to retail investors participating in IPOs and employees holding shares, the primary beneficiaries of this wealth creation are the venture capital and private equity institutions that supported these companies from their early startup phases.

Returning to KNOWLEDGE ATLAS: the company originated from technology transfers from Tsinghua University's Computer Science Department, specifically the Knowledge Engineering Laboratory established in 1996. Its key figure, Chief Scientist Tang Jie, hails from this lab and led the development of China's first trillion-parameter open-source model, "Wu Dao 2.0," while also designing the GLM series model architecture, advancing the autonomy of domestic large model technology.

CEO Zhang Peng is a graduate of Tsinghua's Computer Science Department and holds a Tsinghua Innovation Leadership PhD. Chairman Liu Debing previously served as Deputy Director of the Science and Technology Big Data Research Center at the Tsinghua Data Science Research Institute.

Leveraging the dual appeal of its "Tsinghua pedigree" and "scientist-founder" background, KNOWLEDGE ATLAS attracted significant capital attention from its inception, quickly becoming a "star project" in the primary market.

Data indicates that prior to its IPO, KNOWLEDGE ATLAS received investment from over 50 institutions. These included VC/PE firms such as CAS Star, Dachen Caizhi, Legend Capital, Qiming Venture Partners, Today Capital, Lightspeed China Partners, Shunwei Capital, Sequoia China, Hillhouse Capital, Yunhui Capital, and China Merchants Capital; strategic investors like Meituan, Ant Group, Alibaba, Tencent, and Xiaomi; as well as state-owned capital from cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Tianjin, and Hangzhou.

Currently, these pre-IPO investors are still within their lock-up periods. However, based on the current share price, their paper profits are already substantial.

Returns for early investors are particularly impressive. At its founding in 2019, KNOWLEDGE ATLAS secured a RMB 40 million angel round from CAS Star, valuing the company at RMB 375 million post-money. CAS Star still holds approximately 1.34% of KNOWLEDGE ATLAS. With the company's market cap reaching HKD 323.24 billion, the value of this stake is approximately HKD 4.33 billion.

Turning to MiniMax: in early 2022, former SenseTime VP Yan Junjie chose to forego his stock options just before SenseTime's IPO, resigning to found MiniMax, focusing on full-modal model development.

Over the past three years, the company also assembled a top-tier investor lineup. Its shareholders include premier financial investors like Hillhouse Capital, IDG Capital, Sequoia Capital, Matrix Partners, Momentum Works, and China Life Insurance, alongside strategic investors such as miHoYo, Alibaba, Tencent, and Xiaohongshu.

Among them, Hillhouse Capital, miHoYo, Yunqi Partners, and IDG Capital were the earliest angel investors, participating in a round that valued the company at $200 million post-money. Based on the closing price on February 20th, the paper return for these angel investors exceeds one hundred times.

Once the lock-up periods for both companies expire, these institutions will witness the true realization of their gains.

**AI Large Models Enter a Capital Attraction Phase**

In fact, the soaring stock prices of MiniMax and KNOWLEDGE ATLAS are just a microcosm of the AI large model sector's performance in capital markets recently. The fundraising activity occurring in the primary market is equally noteworthy.

The earliest significant news came from Moonshot AI, which announced on December 31st the completion of a $500 million Series C round led by IDG Capital, with existing shareholders like Alibaba and Tencent significantly oversubscribing. The post-money valuation reached $4.3 billion.

Subsequently, on January 26, 2026, StepFun announced it had secured over RMB 5 billion in a B+ round. Investors included Shanghai Guotou Xiandao Fund, China Life Equity Investment, Pudong New Area Venture Capital, Xuhui Capital, Wuxi Liangxi Fund, Xiamen ITG Group, and Huaqin Technology, with existing backers like Tencent, Qiming Venture Partners, and 5Y Capital participating further.

This single financing round set a new record for the highest single fundraising amount in the Chinese large model sector over the preceding 12 months.

The momentum did not stop there. As recently as February 17th, media reports indicated that Moonshot AI was close to finalizing a new funding round exceeding $700 million, jointly led by existing shareholders including Alibaba, Tencent, 5Y Capital, and Jiuan, pushing its latest valuation past the $10 billion mark.

Additionally, Baichuan AI, another member of the prominent "AI Large Model Six Tigers," signaled its capital market intentions during this period, with an expected IPO launch in 2027.

Within just three months, news of massive funding rounds arrived in quick succession. Behind this trend lies a capital re-rating driven by both technological breakthroughs and promising commercialization prospects.

An early investor in KNOWLEDGE ATLAS commented that large model capabilities are currently undergoing an unprecedented leap, surpassing critical thresholds from "usable" to "highly usable" in key areas like language, multimodality, video, code, and tool usage. A significant window of opportunity for large model红利 (红利 -红利) has clearly opened.

However, it is foreseeable that as competition intensifies, future capital and resources will increasingly concentrate towards a select few leading companies.