What happened: Chinese startup MiniMax said 2025 revenue rose 159% year on year to $79 million, with more than 70% of sales generated outside China, and set out plans to expand globally as an AI platform company.

Why it matters: The numbers suggest rising demand for lower-cost, open-source-based alternatives to proprietary U.S. systems, especially in multimodal products spanning text, video and audio.

Wider context: MiniMax said subscription revenue and enterprise/open-platform services both posted strong growth. The update came after a HK$4.8 billion IPO in January and ahead of a planned M3 model release in the first half of this year.

Background: Reuters notes MiniMax remains far smaller than OpenAI and is still loss-making, reporting a $1.87 billion net loss in 2025, much of it linked to valuation changes in financial instruments.

China’s Minimax reports strong revenue growth, charts broader AI ambitions — Reuters

Singularity Soup Take: Fast growth is real, but so is the gap — MiniMax’s update reads less like a direct strike on U.S. leaders and more like a play to own the price-sensitive, developer-friendly layer beneath them.

Key Takeaways:

• Revenue Accelerated: MiniMax reported $79 million in 2025 revenue, up 159% year on year, indicating commercial traction beyond model demos and pilot-stage experimentation.
• International Exposure: More than 70% of sales came from outside China, a notable signal that Chinese AI firms are pursuing cross-border scale despite geopolitical and platform constraints.
• Growth With Losses: The company remains loss-making, posting a $1.87 billion net loss in 2025 versus $465.2 million a year earlier, with Reuters saying most of the increase came from financial instrument valuation changes.