MiniMax, a $40 billion Chinese AI startup, just dropped its most powerful model yet. M2.7 claims to be one of the best models in the world, but it flopped in my testing…

Round #1: How Bad Is the Damage from the Iran War?

This morning on Bloomberg, I heard that 40 energy sites have been destroyed in the Iran war. How big of an impact will that have?

MiniMax explains that there’s no comprehensive list of all energy facilities. So, it’s hard to tell what percent have been damaged.

MiniMax pulls together a good estimate, finding that around 3 to 5% have been damaged thus far. It notes that the percentage matters less than which facilities have the largest scale. MiniMax projects that the disruption will last for between several weeks and a couple of months. 

This was a good and nuanced answer. But it only cited a couple of sources. Grok 4.20 would have cited hundreds.

I’ll give this round a B+. 

Round #2: Will El Nino Mean a Warmer 2026?

If you were in the Northeast or Midwest this year, you probably froze your butt off! El Nino is projected to hit later this year, giving us warmer weather. 

When will El Nino start, and how much warmer will it get? 

MiniMax claims that El Nino makes it colder and wetter in the northeast. But it only cites one source.

Dejected, I sought a second opinion…

Grok confirms that El Nino actually results in warmer weather, as does Gemini. Whew!

MiniMax flunked this round, giving misleading info. I’m giving it an F. 

Round #3: Researching Helium Production Startups

For our final round, I gave MiniMax a toughie. 

Helium production infrastructure in the Middle East is being damaged in the war. Helium is a finite resource because it escapes from the Earth’s atmosphere. 

Helium is a critical ingredient in chip manufacturing. Are any startups finding new ways to produce it?

MiniMax explains that the issues with helium are even worse than I thought. A Qatari facility that produces a third of the world’s helium has been badly damaged in the war.

But there are awesome startups working to fix the problem. One of the most exciting is Interlune, which is trying to mine helium on the moon. 

MiniMax gave a solid answer, but it cited just 2 sources. It’s hard to know how reliable the answer is. 

I’m giving this round a B-. 

Wrap-Up

MiniMax earned a C- overall in my testing. 

This is actually down from the C I gave the prior model in January. Some responses are great, but others are completely wrong.

This makes it hard to rely on MiniMax. But since it’s cheap to run and sometimes produces good results, it could work in your application if you test it carefully.

But for now, I’m remaining a Grok stan.

More on tech: 

MiniMax: China’s $7 Billion AI Model Flops in Testing

A SOTA Model On Your Phone? — Testing Qwen 3.5

Normies Are Still Underestimating AI

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