Alibaba’s biggest investments this year

2016 was another busy year for Jack Ma and the team at Alibaba. The company posted record-breaking sales numbers, of course, but it also spent the year splashing cash on investments all over the world. Here are the biggest. (* Indicates that the sum is the investment round total; the precise amount contributed by Alibaba was undisclosed.)

Ele.me – US$1.25 billion

Chinese food delivery startup Ele.me probably brought home more of Aliababa’s investment cash than anyone else this year, netting US$1.25 billion from Alibaba and its epayment spin-off Ant Financial in a funding round confirmed in April. The deal also brought Ele.me integration into mobile Taobao and better Alipay integration.

What did Alibaba get out of it? A stake in China’s hottest food delivery app and operational support for its own food delivery service, Koubei.

Lazada – US$1 billion

Alibaba’s biggest acquisition of the year was Southeast Asian ecommerce giant Lazada – it spent US$1 billion to nab a controlling stake in the company. The move gave Alibaba an immediate presence in Southeast Asia, where it one day hopes to generate half of its revenue. It also bolstered Lazada, which sells in in Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam but faces challengers in all those locations.

Didi Chuxing – US$4.5 billion*

Alibaba participated in ride-hailing app Didi Chuxing’s massive round this year. The round totaled US$7.3 billion, including US$4.5 billion in new funding, but it’s not clear precisely how much Alibaba invested, because the round also included other major investors like Apple (who kicked in US$1 billion), China Life (who reportedly put in US$600 million), and Tencent. Alibaba’s total investment was probably less than US$1 billion (it wasn’t disclosed, so we don’t know for sure), but it must have seemed like money well spent when a couple months later Didi’s biggest competitor threw up the white flag and sold its China business to Didi.

See: Tencent’s biggest investments this year

Magic Leap – US$793 million*

Ucar – US$561 million*

Weibo – US$135 million