MiniMax M1 Aims to Rival AI Giants on Cost, Performance

Shanghai Firm Bets on Open-Source Strategy, Efficiency Claims Rashmi Ramesh (rashmiramesh_) • June 18, 2025

Shanghai artificial intelligence startup MiniMax released a new open-source large language model, positioning it as a direct competitor to American and other Chinese models.

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The company released the MiniMax-M1 model under Apache license, enabling open-source access - unlike many rivals that publish their models under more restrictive terms. Meta's Llama family operates under a non-commercial community license and DeepSeek's models are only partially open source. M1's licensing permits unrestricted commercial and research use.

"In complex, productivity-oriented scenarios, M1's capabilities are top-tier among open-source models," MiniMax asserted in a blog post accompanying the launch. The company claims M1 surpasses domestic closed-source models and approaches the leading overseas models, while offering what it describes as "the industry's best cost-effectiveness."

MiniMax says its model ...