Facing a brutal reality where its stock has evaporated nearly 80% from its all-time high, Yan Junjie, founder and CEO of Chinese artificial intelligence firm MiniMax (0100.HK), has made a dramatic personal commitment. In a company-wide internal memo, he announced that effective immediately, he will no longer receive any salary from the company until it achieves its goal of artificial general intelligence (AGI). He also plans to donate 5% of his personal shareholding, split between rewarding long-serving team members and supporting the development of the open-source community.<\/p>\n
In the memo, Yan sought to inject a shot of confidence into a team navigating turbulence. He stressed that despite severe market volatility and persistent external noise, the company’s long-term direction remains unchanged. He argued that the team on the front lines understands the true pace of technological evolution better than anyone, as well as the long-term value the company is creating and accumulating. He pledged to dedicate all of his time, energy, and resources to this endeavor.<\/p>\n
According to a report by Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post cited by South Korea’s Maeil Business Newspaper, Yan’s decision comes as the company faces its most severe test since its founding. MiniMax had previously drawn significant attention for its ability to deliver high-performance AI models at costs far below those of US tech giants like Anthropic and Google. Earlier this year, usage of its open-source models even surpassed American competitors on global AI platforms, briefly claiming the top spot.<\/p>\n
Riding that momentum, MiniMax listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in early January. The stock climbed steadily after its debut, reaching an intraday record high of HK$1,238 (approximately $157.92) in March. However, the glory was short-lived. As lock-up periods for early investors and shareholders expired in early July, a flood of unlocked shares hit the market, triggering intense selling pressure and accelerating the stock’s collapse. By the close of trading on July 10, MiniMax shares had fallen to HK$268.6 (approximately $34.26), a roughly 78% decline from their historic peak, leaving its market capitalization at just one-fifth of its high.<\/p>\n
To address the crisis and secure future development, the company launched a combination of measures on the same day Yan issued his internal memo. According to a filing submitted by MiniMax to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, the company has initiated a large-scale refinancing plan. The specific plan includes a placement of 35.6 million new shares at HK$268 (approximately $34.19) per share, expected to raise approximately HK$9.5 billion (approximately $1.2 billion). Concurrently, it plans to issue convertible bonds to raise approximately HK$6.5 billion (approximately $829.1 million). Combined, MiniMax aims to raise up to HK$16 billion (approximately $2.0 billion).<\/p>\n
MiniMax has clarified its strategic priorities for the use of funds. Approximately 80% of the capital raised will be invested in AI infrastructure construction and model research and development. Another 10% will be allocated to expanding overseas markets and advancing product upgrades for coding-focused offerings like “MiniMax Code.”<\/p>\n
The details of Yan’s personal financial commitment are highly specific. In addition to an indefinite salary suspension, he plans to allocate personal shares equivalent to 4% of the company’s total share capital over the next four years to reward core team members who remain committed and create long-term value. He will also donate an additional 1% of shares to establish a dedicated fund to continuously support the development of the open-source community. This series of moves is being interpreted by the market as the founder’s ultimate gamble to restore confidence among investors and internal employees amid the stock’s collapse by inextricably linking his personal interests with the company’s fate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Facing a brutal reality where its stock has evaporated nearly 80% from its all-time high, Yan Junjie, founder…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":103354,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[53645,6744,3013,8968,53646,9753,930,46803,53647,53648,52817],"class_list":["post-103353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-agi","tag-0100-hk","tag-agi","tag-artificial-general-intelligence","tag-artificial-general-intelligence-agi","tag-employee-incentives","tag-hong-kong-stock-exchange","tag-minimax","tag-open-source-community","tag-refinancing","tag-share-price-crash","tag-yan-junjie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103353"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103353\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}