Alibaba shares rise as Jack Ma, Joe Tsai bump up shareholding

Chinese tech giant Alibaba has been having a tough time battling the likes of Pinduoduo and Sea Group in Southeast Asia. / Photo credit: Shutterstock

Alibaba shares in New York and Hong Kong have spiked today after reports that Jack Ma and Joe Tsai, co-founders of the Chinese ecommerce titan, have become the company’s largest shareholders.

The two tycoons bought over US$200 million worth of Alibaba stock in the fourth quarter of 2023, according to the South China Morning Post. This pegs Ma, who reportedly purchased around US$50 million of stock, as the largest single shareholder in Alibaba.

Tsai, who bought US$151.7 million worth of shares in Alibaba in the same period, follows Ma as the second-largest shareholder. Alibaba declined SCMP‘s request for comment.

Ma’s and Tsai’s purchases followed a steep drop in Alibaba share prices since 2020. The company closed yesterday at US$68.6 on the New York Stock Exchange, far from its 2020 peak of around US$309.9.

SoftBank Group, a longtime backer of the ecommerce giant, has also reduced its shareholding on multiple occasions over the past couple of years.

Trouble has been brewing for Alibaba, recently as well, with rival PDD Holdings – the company behind low-cost-focused platforms Pinduoduo and Temu – surpassing Alibaba in market value late last year. At the time of writing, however, Alibaba’s stock price in New York stood at around US$74, which puts its market capitalization a sliver above PDD Holdings’.

See also: Tracking PDD’s Temu-fueled rise to surpass Alibaba in market value