The letter reads like a founder’s article of faith. The share sale underneath it tells a harder story.
The founder of MiniMax has told staff he will take no salary until the Chinese AI company builds artificial general intelligence. On the same day, MiniMax moved to raise as much as $2bn from investors. Its shares have lost about 80% of their value since March.
Yan Junjie, who is chief executive, chairman and chief technology officer, sent the pledge in an internal memo on Friday. The South China Morning Post saw the note, which a company executive then posted in full on X.
“Effective today, and until the day we achieve AGI, I will no longer accept any salary from the company,” Yan wrote. He signs off internally as “IO”.
He promised more than a pay cut. Over four years, Yan said he will hand out shares worth 4% of the company from his own holdings to reward staff. Another 1% will seed a fund for open-source projects. “We will keep going until we get there,” the letter ends.
