The Misfit’s Playbook: How MiniMax Challenges Big AI’s Burn Rate with Efficiency On China’s crowded large language model chessboard, MiniMax has always been the difficult-to-categorize “misfit.” While its peers raise tens of billions, engage in compute arms races, and spend lavishly on user acquisition, MiniMax’s recent filings dropped a figure that silenced the industry: since its 2022 founding, it has spent a total of approximately $500 million. What does $500 million mean?