InvestIndependently confirmed2 publishers3 min readPublished
MiniMax's revenue nearly quadrupled. Its gross profit covers 7% of its adjusted loss.
Enterprise inference sales grew about eightfold to $73.9 million, and the reported loss came in $114 million inside consensus while the adjusted loss more than doubled. Both are true.
The Investor · Invest desk
What happened
- MiniMax reported first-half 2026 revenue of $116.6 million, up 283% year on year, in its second results since listing in Hong Kong in January.
- Reported net loss narrowed to $358.0 million from $402.2 million a year earlier.
- Shares closed at HK$303 ahead of the announcement, up 1.1% on the day and nearly 80% below their peak.
Why it matters
- contradiction Underwrite the reported line and this is a company converging on breakeven; underwrite the adjusted line and the cash burn doubled. Consensus was struck against the first.
- capability Paying enterprise inference demand is now a measurable line item in a listed Chinese lab's accounts rather than a benchmark score, which gives investors a series they can track quarter to quarter.
- constraint At under 18 cents of gross profit per revenue dollar, no plausible rate of inference growth funds the R&D bill from operations, so the capital has to come from issuance.
- exposure Stock Connect access and the planned STAR listing route that funding requirement to mainland investors, in a business whose losses still run at roughly three times revenue.
Gross profit for the half was $20.8 million against $3.7 million a year earlier, with margin at 17.9% from 12.1% [18]. Hold that beside the adjusted net loss and the proportion is unflattering: gross profit covers roughly 7% of the adjusted loss, or put the other way, the adjusted loss is about 14 times the margin the revenue actually threw off [26]. MiniMax says its objective is "increasingly capable intelligence with compelling unit economics, making frontier capabilities affordable at scale" [14]. On this half's arithmetic that is an ambition rather than a description.
The segment detail is where the paying-inference argument stands up. Open Platform and other enterprise AI services multiplied about eight times year on year [33], which implies total revenue of roughly $30.4 million in the comparable half of 2025 [23]. The enterprise line on its own is now about 2.4 times the size of the whole company twelve months ago [28], and the half's revenue was about 1.5 times all of full-year 2025, which MiniMax reported at $79 million [c11b][29]. Consumer-facing AI-native products roughly doubled [17]. Only one of those numbers changed the shape of the business.
The geography disclosure reads like a retreat and is not one. Revenue from outside the Chinese mainland fell to around 61% of the total from 72% [9]. On the implied base, that is about $71 million of offshore revenue against roughly $22 million a year earlier [24], while mainland revenue went from about $8.5 million to about $45.5 million, more than five times [25]. Offshore did not slow. Domestic caught up faster.
The two consensus comparisons pull in opposite directions. Revenue landed about 19% below the roughly $144.5 million FactSet-compiled consensus, while the reported net loss came in about $114 million inside the roughly $471.7 million analysts expected [7][21][22]. The reported loss narrowed by $44.2 million; the adjusted loss widened by $154.3 million. That $199 million divergence sits entirely in the items the company strips out, namely share-based payment expenses, fair-value loss on financial liabilities and listing expenses [27]. Meanwhile research and development expenses more than doubled and selling expenses fell 18% [8], which is a company buying capability and no longer buying users.
To reach the $363.77 million that Bloomberg-compiled estimates put on 2026, the second half has to produce about $247 million, roughly 2.1 times the first [c11a][30]. That is not out of reach for a segment growing eightfold, but it is the specific test Citi set when it said investors would want evidence that the H3 model translates into revenue contribution even if the model itself is well received [11]. Jefferies took the other side in August, keeping MiniMax among its best buy ideas on cost efficiency and the H3 release [12]. At an implied market value near $12 billion against the near-$60 billion peak of March [c13b][32], the stock is priced closer to Citi's question than to Jefferies' answer.
What to watch
- Whether second-half disclosure breaks out H3 revenue specifically, which is the evidence Citi asked for and the only direct test of the monetisation claim.
- Gross margin direction in the full-year accounts: a second consecutive rise supports the unit-economics language, a flat or lower one does not.
- Timing and size of the Shanghai STAR listing, and whether the proceeds cover more than one half-year of adjusted losses.
Clarity's read
What the record supports and how the coverage leans. The claims behind it follow.
Reality
- Evidence82
- Adoption62
- Hype gap+22
- Incentives71
- Confidence78
Claim ledger
Ranked by verification strength, evidence, and original report placement.
- [1]
MiniMax reported revenue of $116.6 million for the first half of 2026, nearly quadrupling year on year, in its second earnings report since its January Hong Kong listing.
- [2]
MiniMax posted a 283% surge in first-half revenue to US$116.6 million for the six months ended June 30, 2026.
- [3]
Net loss narrowed to $358.0 million from $402.2 million, the Shanghai-based company said on Wednesday.
- [4]
Adjusted net loss, excluding share-based payment expenses, fair-value loss on financial liabilities and listing expenses, was $293.03 million in the six months ended June, widening from $138.74 million a year earlier.
- [5]
MiniMax shares closed 1.1% higher at HK$303 ahead of the results, nearly 80% off the peak.
- [6]
MiniMax hit a record in March, when its market capitalization neared $60 billion, before falling sharply as competition in the AI sector intensified.
- [7]
Analysts were expecting about $144.5 million in revenue and a net loss of roughly $471.7 million, according to a FactSet-compiled consensus.
ReportedSupportedSource: FactSet-compiled consensus, via Dow Jones2 sources— create a free account to open themView cited source - [8]
Research and development expenses more than doubled, while selling expenses declined 18%.
- [9]
MiniMax said revenue generated outside the Chinese mainland contributed around 61% of total revenue, down from 72% last year.
- [10]
Analysts say MiniMax is likely to benefit from mainland Chinese investors gaining access to the Hong Kong-listed stock following its inclusion in the Stock Connect program, and the company has unveiled plans to list on Shanghai's STAR market.
- [11]
MiniMax released H3, a general-purpose multimodal model supporting text, image, video and sound, last month; Citi analysts said investors would likely want evidence that H3 is translating into revenue contribution even if the model receives positive feedback.
ReportedSupportedSource: Citi analysts2 sources— create a free account to open themView cited source - [12]
Jefferies analysts in August reiterated MiniMax as one of their best buy ideas, citing its relatively more cost-efficient model, the successful H3 release and a coming model launch.
ReportedSupportedSource: Jefferies analysts2 sources— create a free account to open themView cited source - [13]
MiniMax attributed the revenue growth to continued expansion of its global customer and user base, rapidly increasing demand for model inference, and its ability to convert edges in model capabilities into products and services.
- [14]
MiniMax said its objective is to "deliver increasingly capable intelligence with compelling unit economics, making frontier capabilities affordable at scale", and that it believes model intelligence has "substantial room to advance".
- [15]
Revenue from MiniMax's Open Platform and other AI-based enterprise services jumped more than 703% year on year to US$73.9 million from US$9.2 million.
- [16]
The enterprise segment accounted for 63.4% of total revenue, up from 30.3% a year earlier, which MiniMax attributed to growth in paying users and enterprise customers.
- [18]
Gross profit grew more than five-fold to US$20.8 million from US$3.7 million, and gross profit margin increased to 17.9% from 12.1% a year earlier.
- [19]
First-half revenue accounted for roughly 32% of the US$363.77 million expected by analysts for full-year 2026, according to Bloomberg-compiled estimates.
- [21]
First-half revenue came in about $27.9 million, or roughly 19%, below the FactSet-compiled consensus.
- [22]
The reported net loss came in about $113.7 million, or roughly 24%, smaller than the consensus loss estimate.
- [23]
The disclosed segment share implies total revenue of about $30.4 million in the first half of 2025.
- [24]
Offshore revenue was about $71.1 million in the first half of 2026 against about $21.9 million a year earlier, a rise of roughly 225%.
- [25]
Mainland China revenue was about $45.5 million against about $8.5 million a year earlier, more than five times.
- [26]
Gross profit equalled about 7% of the adjusted net loss for the half; the adjusted loss was about 14 times gross profit.
- [27]
The reported loss narrowed by $44.2 million while the adjusted loss widened by $154.3 million, a divergence of about $199 million located in the items excluded from the adjusted figure.
- [28]
The enterprise segment alone was about 2.4 times MiniMax's total revenue in the year-earlier half.
- [29]
First-half 2026 revenue was about 1.5 times MiniMax's full-year 2025 revenue.
- [30]
Hitting the $363.77 million full-year consensus requires about $247 million of second-half revenue, roughly 2.1 times the first half.
- [31]
The reported net loss for the half was about 3.1 times revenue.
- [32]
A share price nearly 80% below the March peak implies a market value of roughly $12 billion against the near-$60 billion peak.
- [33]
Enterprise segment revenue was about 8.0 times its year-earlier level.
Sources
2 independent publishers whose own reporting we read for this story.
- morningstar.comChinese AI Firm MiniMax Narrows Loss as Revenue Nearly Quadruples | Morningstar
2 articles · August 26, 2026
- scmp.comMiniMax revenue surges 283% but remains behind pace to meet forecast amid crowded AI race
1 article · August 26, 2026
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