China’s Hot, Unprofitable AI Stocks Are Hard to Short Until July

Short sellers eying China’s hottest AI firms have found the going hard with so little of their shares publicly traded. That scarcity premium may come to an end in July as stock lockups expire.

Shares of MiniMax Group Inc. and Knowledge Atlas Technology Joint Stock Co., two of China’s leading AI model developers, have surged nearly 400% and 900% since their January debuts, respectively. While optimism about their cost-driven competitiveness has underpinned the rally, the small pool of shares in free float has made it tough for short sellers to borrow the securities.