ZAI, Minimax shares fall after Chinese rival Moonshot releases upgraded model

 Shares of Chinese artificial intelligence firms ZAI Co Ltd (HK:2513) and MiniMax Group Inc (HK:0100) fell on Monday after local rival Moonshot released the first major upgrade to the frontier model that had put the Chinese AI startup on the map. 

ZAI fell 1.7% to HK$490.40, while Minimax slid 9.4% to HK$170.0. Minimax was also battered by growing scrutiny of increased hallucination rates in a newly launched model. 

Moonshot on Friday unveiled Kimi K3.1 Pro, dubbing it as the first in a new line of AI models aimed at being much better at financial research and coding. The new model is also more capable at 3D modeling, Mooshot said. 

Moonshot said Kimi K3.1 pro scored ahead or mostly in line with comparable models from OpenAI and Anthropic on several major benchmarks, while performing at a much lower cost of operation. 

Moonshot’s K3 was a surprise breakout hit after its release in July, as users lauded its strong performance and relatively low operating costs. The release was compared to DeepSeek’s R1 release in early-2025, which had rattled AI markets with the prospect of powerful and efficient models. 

But the new model presents more competition for ZAI and Minimax, which are already grappling with recent price cuts by their U.S. competitors that narrowed the margin gap that had initially made Chinese models appear more enticing. 

Minimax wiped out all of its gains made since its public market debut at the beginning of the year, and fell below its IPO price, while ZAI sharply trimmed its annual gains, although it was still trading up about 300% so far in 2026.