HK Stock: "AI Titans" Experience Record High Short Selling: MiniMax's Short Interest Surges to 20%

Fintelligen AI News Flash: Short positions in China's two listed large-scale AI model companies, MiniMax and Intelliscale AI, have simultaneously hit a record high. S&P Global data shows that the shorted shares of MiniMax now represent about 20% of free float, while Intelliscale accounts for approximately 6%. MiniMax is set to release its semi-annual report after the Hong Kong stock market closes on August 26, while Intelliscale will report its performance on August 31, with short sellers increasing their positions ahead of the financial updates.

Both companies were highly speculated upon during their IPOs earlier this year. As of now, Intelliscale is still trading over 800% above its IPO price, and MiniMax over 80%, but both have dropped by more than half from their peaks. After the release of Kimi K3 in July, Intelliscale and MiniMax experienced temporary drops of approximately 24% and 18%, respectively. Intelliscale later introduced GLM-5.3, which Jefferies believes performs similarly to Kimi K3 with a single-task cost that is about 19% lower, yet the stock price has not substantially rebounded.

Stock supply is also increasing. Following the end of the lock-up period from their July IPOs, Intelliscale and MiniMax had 25.68 million and 150 million shares unlocked, totaling approximately $11.5 billion at the then-prevailing prices. On the other hand, southbound funds are still entering the market, with their holdings in Intelliscale at around 12% and MiniMax at about 8.1%, but this has not driven the stock prices back up.

Analysts have different concerns about the two companies. Hedgeye believes that Intelliscale's pricing battles have squeezed its pricing power and profit margins, while MiniMax is seen as "neither the smartest nor the cheapest." The upcoming two semi-annual reports will need to address one key question: Can pure-play large-scale model companies make money in an increasingly competitive and cost-sensitive environment?