For two months running, mainland investors using the Stock Connect southbound channel have made a domestic Chinese AI model company the most-bought stock on the Hong Kong market. July's winner was Zhipu AI (智谱), which pulled in more southbound purchases than Alibaba or Tencent. August's was MiniMax, with HK$10.6 billion in monthly net buying — again beating both tech giants.
MiniMax wasn't even eligible for the southbound channel until Aug. 6, meaning mainland investors couldn't buy it through Stock Connect before then. They showed up on day one: southbound investors net bought HK$2.697 billion. The next day added HK$2.226 billion. Two-day cumulative buying was more than HK$4.9 billion, and within a month, southbound holdings climbed to 9.7%.
Zhipu got its round earlier. It entered the southbound channel on June 8, and first-day net purchases hit HK$920 million. In the first week of July, southbound investors net bought HK$13.7 billion across five trading sessions; the next week brought another HK$10.6 billion. They now hold about 11% of Zhipu, still more than their MiniMax stake.
Both companies are in the high-growth, high-loss phase. MiniMax reported first-half revenue of US$116.6 million, up 283% year over year, with a US$358 million loss. Zhipu's same-period revenue came to RMB 954 million, up about 400%, while its loss was about RMB 2 billion.