Alibaba founder Jack Ma makes rare public appearance in China

The return of China’s best-known businessman may help assuage the concerns of private sector companies after a regulatory crackdown.

Jack Ma, the founder of tech giant Alibaba, has made a rare public appearance in China, which could signal the government’s efforts to calm concerns in the country’s tech sector after a harsh two-year regulatory crackdown.

China’s best-known businessman has kept a low profile since late 2020 when a speech he made attacking Chinese regulators was followed by Beijing withdrawing a planned initial public offering of Alibaba subsidiary Ant Group. A record $2.75 billion fine was then imposed on the company for alleged unfair practices.

Ma has been seen around the world for the past two years and reportedly lived in Japan for much of 2022.

He returned to China last week, Reuters news agency quoted two sources with knowledge of the matter as saying. It was not clear how long she plans to stay in China.

school visit

On Monday, he visited a school founded by Alibaba partners in the eastern city of Hangzhou, according to a post on the school’s official social media account.

Ma, a former English teacher, met with staff and toured classrooms before speaking about the challenges artificial intelligence (AI) could pose to education.

“ChatGPT and similar technologies are just the beginning of the AI ​​era,” Ma said according to the post. “We should be using artificial intelligence to solve problems instead of being controlled by it.”

Ma was one of the most prominent targets of officials’ crackdown on alleged anti-competitive practices by some of China’s biggest tech names, fueled by fears that major internet companies controlled too much data and had expanded too fast.

group of ants said in january that Ma had relinquished control of the fintech company, adjusting its ownership structure so that “no shareholder, alone or jointly with other parties, has control of Ant Group.”

In a sign that official control may now be loosening, authorities said in December that Ant had won approval to raise 10.5 billion yuan ($1.5 billion) for its consumer finance arm.

Analysts said Ma’s public resurgence supports the government’s softening tone toward the private sector as leaders try to shore up an economy battered by three years of COVID-19 restrictions.

Ma’s return “boosts sentiment in the broader platform and Internet industry,” Zhang Zihua, chief investment officer at Beijing Yunyi Asset Management, told Reuters.

“Because that means that the new top leadership has been re-examining the position and importance of platform companies in China’s economic development.”

“Previous restrictive policies in the platform and Internet sector are also expected to be adjusted,” Zhang added.

Alibaba shares rose more than 4 percent after news of Ma’s return to China before giving back some of the gains.