Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba, has bought a large amount of the company's shares, shortly after Alibaba launched the largest share sale in the history of the Hong Kong stock market to fund artificial intelligence development. Analysts see the purchase as a show of confidence in the company's long-term AI strategy.
The South China Morning Post reported on the 25th that Ma bought more than HK$600 million (about 105.9 billion won) worth of Alibaba shares over two days. According to Hong Kong exchange filings, Chairman Joe Tsai and Chief Executive Officer Eddie Wu also bought shares worth HK$202 million (about 35.6 billion won) during the same period.
"This shows Alibaba's strong confidence that it can realize its AI strategy and seize long-term growth opportunities down the road," a person familiar with the matter said.
Earlier, on the 23rd, Alibaba said it would carry out an HK$80 billion (about 14 trillion won) share sale by selling 710 million common shares at HK$112.70 each. The company said it would use the funds to strengthen its "full-stack AI" capabilities — spanning AI chips, computing infrastructure, large language models (LLMs) and AI applications — and to expand its leadership in the global AI market.
The executives' successive purchases came after the filing. The share sale was a success, drawing final demand of about three times the number of shares offered and reaching its target amount within hours. Analysts read the executive purchases as adding a further layer of confidence. The new share issuance is set to be completed on the 26th.
Ma, who founded Alibaba in 1999, stepped down as CEO in 2013 and left the chairmanship in 2019. He also bought about $50 million worth of the company's shares in 2023.
Alibaba has recently been concentrating its resources on AI. The company has unveiled a plan to invest more than 380 billion yuan (about 78 trillion won) over three years in chips, data centers and computing power. As a result, its capital expenditure in the second quarter reached 67.67 billion yuan, up 75% from a year earlier, and net profit fell 75% in the fallout.
Still, the company continues to see gains in the low-cost open-weight market, with cumulative global downloads of its in-house Qwen AI model family surpassing 3 billion this month.
