China signals global AI push as MiniMax CEO joins meeting with Premier Li Qiang

The CEO of Chinese artificial intelligence company MiniMax met Premier Li Qiang on Monday, becoming the second representative from a foundational AI model developer to meet with the national leader after Liang Wenfeng, founder of DeepSeek, a year ago.

The appearance of 36-year-old Yan Junjie along with eight other leading figures from China’s business, culture and education spheres underscored the rapid ascent of the newly minted billionaire, who steered his company founded just four years ago to a blockbuster initial public offering in Hong Kong earlier this month.

The other representatives at the meeting included Ming Ming, chief economist of Citic Securities, Zhang Zhigang, chairman and party secretary of State Grid Corporation of China, and badminton star Shi Yuqi, according to state broadcaster CCTV.

Yu Xiaohui, president of the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, a state-backed think tank influential in domestic AI governance, also attended.

All nine guests delivered remarks in front of Li, saying they believed market confidence had strengthened despite complex and severe external conditions, according to state media Xinhua.

Backed by Alibaba Group Holding, Shanghai-based MiniMax is one of China’s leading model developers. Its latest open-weights model, M2.1, was one of the most cost-efficient, high-performance models in the world, according to benchmarking firm Artificial Analysis. Alibaba owns the Post.