Alibaba Group Holding Limited shares climbed after news broke that billionaire founder Jack Ma has reportedly returned to China, ending a stay overseas of more than a year.
Ma had a rocky 2021 with the Chinese government, leading to time out of the public eye. Reuters cited sources saying that the “sober mood” of Ma’s businesses eventually “spurred the new premier to reach out.”
The return of the well-liked entrepreneur and billionaire philanthropist may help soothe concerns of China’s private sector after a bruising two-year regulatory crackdown.
Alibaba shares were up nearly 1% to $87.59 in pre-market trade on the New York Stock Exchange.
There was online chatter about Ma's return on Chinese social media early on Monday before being confirmed by a school that Ma had indeed visited.
The South China Morning Post, which is owned by Alibaba, reported that Ma met teachers and students at Hangzhou Yungu School, a private school covering kindergarten to high school, that was funded by Alibaba founders in 2017.
According to the newspaper, Ma discussed with the school’s faculty the future of education in the era of rapidly developing artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “We must use AI to solve problems, not to be controlled by AI,” Ma was quoted saying.
Ma added that technologies like ChatGPT have posed challenges for educators and that it was only the beginning of the era of AI. Ma was an English teacher before founding Alibaba.
In 2019, Ma retired as Alibaba’s chairman on his 55th birthday and has reportedly been travelling to different countries to learn about agriculture technology.
“The market seems to believe that the more public appearance Ma gets, the more friendly the government is towards private businesses,” Angela Zhang, an associate professor of law at the University of Hong Kong told the South China Morning Post.
The newspaper added that Ma’s return to Hangzhou this week has “injected some much-needed confidence” into China’s private sector, which should also help “dispel worries about the personal safety of business entrepreneurs on the mainland.”
Contact the author Uttara Choudhury at uttara@proactiveinvestors.com
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