Chinese artificial intelligence-focused equities climbed on Wednesday amid renewed investor enthusiasm after reports that DeepSeek is preparing for an IPO in mainland China as soon as this year and is seeking private funding with a target valuation of at least $71 billion.
Two members of China’s closely watched AI startup cohort saw especially strong moves. Knowledge Atlas Tech Joint Stock, trading under ticker 2513 in Hong Kong and commonly known as Zhipu AI, rose nearly 9% on the day. MiniMax Group Inc, listed as ticker 0100 in Hong Kong, jumped almost 15% in intraday trading.
These firms, together with DeepSeek, are regarded as part of the group nicknamed China’s "AI Tigers" - startups identified as front-runners in the country’s AI development efforts. Market reaction to the DeepSeek news reinforced a broader pattern of optimism toward fast-growing technology companies in China.
DeepSeek is the most prominent of the cluster following the global attention its R1 model garnered in early-2025. The company has continued to introduce model updates and new variants, including a V4 family released in April. Recent coverage of the V4 models indicated they were ranked first among open-sourced AI models and that token usage through application programming interfaces was increasing.
According to the reports, DeepSeek is moving toward filing for a mainland China initial public offering this year and concurrently pursuing private investment at a valuation no lower than $71 billion. This financing push follows a prior fundraising round, concluded just weeks earlier, in which DeepSeek raised $7 billion at a $50 billion valuation.
News of DeepSeek’s fundraising and IPO planning helped lift sentiment across Chinese AI names. Some of these shares have been among the strongest performers so far this year. Zhipu, which completed its listing in January, has surged more than 1,500% in 2026. By contrast, MiniMax experienced an initial post-listing rally of at least threefold but has since underperformed year-to-date and is trading about 25% lower for the year, prior to Wednesday’s move.
Market context
- DeepSeek advancing an IPO filing in mainland China and seeking private funding at a valuation of at least $71 billion.
- DeepSeek previously raised $7 billion at a $50 billion valuation in a recent round.
- Zhipu (2513) and MiniMax (0100) experienced sharp intraday gains after the report.
Reporter note
The moves described reflect market reactions reported in the same-day coverage of DeepSeek’s fundraising and IPO plans and subsequent price changes in related Hong Kong listings.