Jack Ma buys Alibaba stock to support AI expansion

Alibaba Group co-founder Jack Ma has purchased more than HK$600 million (US$76.5 million) worth of company shares. The move is intended to signal support for the conglomerate’s aggressive expansion into artificial intelligence.

Ma joins other senior executives, including President Joe Tsai and CEO Eddie Wu, who have collectively acquired at least US$20 million in stock. The news of the share purchases contributed to a modest rise in Alibaba’s stock price, helping to offset recent losses.

This investment comes as Alibaba seeks to lead the global AI race, pledging to spend over 380 billion yuan (US$56.5 billion) over three years on infrastructure, including chips, data centers, and large language models. The company recently completed an HK$80 billion follow-on share offering in Hong Kong to fund these ambitions. However, the heavy capital expenditure required to compete with firms like OpenAI and Anthropic is currently impacting profit margins, while the company's core retail business faces challenges from weak domestic consumption.