On January 23, the New York Times reported that Jack Ma bought $50 million worth of Alibaba shares on the Hong Kong exchange in the fourth quarter of 2023. On the same day, Blue Pool – the asset management fund of Alibaba Chairman Joe Tsai – said he bought nearly 2 million Alibaba shares listed in the US, worth $152 million last quarter.

This news helped Alibaba shares increase 8% on the New York Stock Exchange on January 23. On the Hong Kong exchange today, this code is currently up 4%. However, since the beginning of the year, Alibaba shares have decreased 5.5% on the Hong Kong exchange.

In November, Alibaba said Jack Ma’s asset management fund planned to sell 10 million Alibaba shares, worth $871 million.

Jack Ma has been silent for the past few years, after a speech criticizing the Chinese financial system in 2020, which is said to have upset Chinese officials. Previously, he resigned as Chairman of Alibaba in 2019 and left the Board of Directors in 2020, not participating in the company’s daily operations. However, he is still a person who has a great influence on this corporation.

The Chinese e-commerce giant is in a period of reform. Last November, they canceled their plan to separate the cloud computing segment, due to uncertainties related to the US export restriction on AI-related technology. This plan is part of the strategy to split the group into 6 subsidiaries, announced in March 2023.

In the e-commerce segment, Alibaba is currently facing fierce competition from Pinduoduo. The speed of retail recovery after the pandemic in China is also slower than forecast, putting even more pressure on Alibaba.

In December 2023, this company announced that CEO Eddie Wu would also hold the position of CEO of e-commerce. This happened just a few days after he became the head of cloud computing.

Ha Thu (according to Reuters, CNBC)