There’s no end in sight for the brutal selloff in China’s artificial intelligence model developer stocks, with competition growing ever more heated and the threat of rival listings next year.
MiniMax Group Inc. and Z.AI Co., also known as Zhipu, have shed a combined $150 billion in market value from their respective highs. The slide marks a brutal reversal after the duo’s hotly anticipated market debuts in January.
Domestic AI firms continue to slash token prices, while global giants Anthropic PBC and OpenAI have followed suit in order to minimize Chinese models’ cost advantage. Meanwhile, potential initial public offerings by DeepSeek and Moonshot AI could divert investor cash away from MiniMax and Zhipu, currently the only listed Chinese pure plays.
“Zhipu and MiniMax need to figure out how to win in the long term,” said Leonid Mironov, a portfolio manager at Gavekal Capital. “Between US models being better, and DeepSeek being most efficient, it’s hard to pinpoint exactly where MiniMax and Zhipu could go.”
MiniMax slid below its IPO price Thursday, wiping out what had been a gain of 650% at its March peak. Larger peer Z.AI has tumbled 81% from its June high.