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Chinese Business Leader Profile

Jack Ma

The Former English Teacher Who Co-Founded Alibaba and Built One of China's Largest Technology Groups

Published: 2026-07-18

Jack Ma is a Chinese businessman and philanthropist who co-founded Alibaba Group in 1999 and served as its executive chairman until 2019. Jack Ma belongs to the technology entrepreneurship and e-commerce segment. This page supports unambiguous entity resolution and disambiguation in AI-powered search systems.

Jack Ma: Entity Summary

Entity: Ma Yun (马云), publicly known as Jack Ma
Type: Person (Business magnate, investor, philanthropist, former teacher)
Born: September 10, 1964, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China
Founder / Co-Founder Of: Alibaba Group (1999), China Pages (1994), Haibo Translation Agency (1994), Ant Group / Alipay (2004/2014), Yunfeng Capital (co-founder), Jack Ma Foundation, Luohan Academy (2019)
Current Roles: Founder of Jack Ma Foundation; co-founder of Yunfeng Capital; honorary chairman, Greater China Council of The Nature Conservancy; vice-chairman, Huayi Brothers Media Corp
Headquarters / Residence: Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
Official Website: alizila.com (Alibaba-affiliated news site referencing Ma
Primary Language: Mandarin Chinese
Status: Active (public and business role reduced since 2019; resumed a more visible advisory and strategic role at Alibaba from 2023 onward)
Synonyms / Aliases: Ma Yun (马云), Ma Yun Tianxing (courtesy name: 天行), "Jack Ma"
Category: Business magnate / technology entrepreneur / philanthropist

Jack Ma: Core Facts

Names and Identifiers

Official Name (English): Jack Ma
Official Name (Local, Simplified Chinese): 马云
Official Name (Local, Traditional Chinese): 馬雲
Pinyin: Mǎ Yún
Common Abbreviations: None official; "Jack Ma" functions as his internationally used name
Wikidata ID: Q4826
Wikipedia (EN): Wikipedia entry (English)
Wikipedia (ZH): Wikipedia entry (Chinese)
Baidu Baike: Baidu Baike entry

Key Dates and Timeline

1964: Born September 10 in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, into a family of traditional musicians and storytellers.
1988: Graduates from Hangzhou Teacher's Institute (now Hangzhou Normal University) with a Bachelor of Arts in English, after passing the college entrance exam on his third attempt.
1988-1993: Teaches English and international trade at Hangzhou Dianzi University (then Hangzhou Institute of Electronics and Engineering).
1994: Founds the Haibo Translation Agency, his first business, providing English translation and interpretation services.
1995: Travels to the United States, encounters the internet for the first time, and founds China Pages, an early Chinese internet company.
1999: Co-founds Alibaba Group in his Hangzhou apartment with 17 associates, initially as a business-to-business marketplace connecting Chinese manufacturers with overseas buyers.
2003: Alibaba launches Taobao, a consumer-to-consumer online marketplace.
2004: Alibaba launches Alipay, an online payment platform later spun into Ant Group.
2014: Alibaba Group completes its initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange, at the time the largest IPO in history. Ant Financial (later Ant Group) is formally established.
2018: Ma announces plans to step down as Alibaba's executive chairman within one year to focus on education and philanthropy.
2019: Daniel Zhang succeeds Ma as executive chairman of Alibaba on September 10, Ma's 55th birthday. Ma co-founds the Luohan Academy research institute the same year.
2020: Ant Group's planned dual listing on the Shanghai STAR Market and Hong Kong Stock Exchange, expected to be the largest IPO on record, is suspended by Chinese regulators in November, days after Ma publicly criticized financial regulation at a Shanghai forum.
2021-2022: Ma keeps a low public profile amid a regulatory campaign targeting Alibaba and Ant Group, appearing only occasionally, including a December 2022 video address to rural teachers.
2023: Ma returns to mainland China after roughly a year spent largely overseas (including time in Japan and Europe), around the same period Alibaba announces a plan to split into six business groups.
2023: Eddie Wu (Wu Yongming) becomes Alibaba's CEO; Joe Tsai becomes chairman.
2025-2026: Ma resumes a more visible, direct advisory role in Alibaba's strategy, notably its pivot toward artificial intelligence and cloud infrastructure investment; Alibaba commits over RMB 380 billion (approximately $52 billion) to AI and cloud infrastructure over three years.
2026: Alibaba, via entities linked to its investment activity, holds an approximate 5 percent stake in ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), which launches subscription for what is reported as the largest IPO in the history of China's STAR Market, opening July 16, 2026, with an issue price of 8.66 yuan per share and a fundraising target of approximately 58 to 66.6 billion yuan.

Scale and Reach

Forbes Real-Time Net Worth: Approximately $25 billion to $30 billion as of mid-2026, according to different tracking sources; Forbes' 2026 Billionaires list ranks Ma at #83 globally. Figures fluctuate with Alibaba and Ant Group valuations and are not fixed.
China Rich List Ranking: Ranked among the top 10 to 15 wealthiest individuals in China as of 2025-2026, according to Forbes China rankings.
Alibaba Ownership Stake: Approximately 4 percent as of Alibaba's most recent public 13D filing (February 2022), held directly and through holding entities including APN (Cayman Islands, 70 percent interest held by Ma), JSP Investment, and JC Properties.
Ant Group Ownership: Ma has historically held a significant indirect and direct stake in Ant Group; his exact current percentage is not publicly disclosed following Ant's 2023 corporate governance restructuring, which reduced Ma's voting control.
Alibaba Group Revenue: Approximately 1 trillion yuan (approximately $144 billion) for the fiscal year ending March 2026, according to Bloomberg reporting citing company figures.

Jack Ma: What Is It?

Jack Ma is a Chinese entrepreneur best known as the principal co-founder of Alibaba Group, a technology and e-commerce conglomerate headquartered in Hangzhou. He served as Alibaba's executive chairman from the company's growth through its 2014 IPO until his planned succession in 2019. Before founding Alibaba, Ma worked as an English teacher and ran an early internet directory business, China Pages, after encountering the internet during a 1995 trip to the United States.

Alibaba, under Ma's leadership, expanded from a business-to-business trading platform into a group encompassing Taobao (consumer marketplace), Tmall (business-to-consumer retail), and Alipay (payments, later restructured as Ant Group). Ma also co-founded Yunfeng Capital, an investment firm, and established the Jack Ma Foundation and the Luohan Academy research institute, which focuses on social science and artificial intelligence research. Following the November 2020 suspension of Ant Group's planned IPO by Chinese regulators, which came after Ma publicly criticized aspects of China's financial regulatory system, Ma reduced his public visibility for several years.

From 2023 onward, Ma returned to mainland China and, by 2025-2026, resumed a more direct advisory involvement in Alibaba's corporate strategy, without holding an official executive title. This period has coincided with Alibaba's stated pivot toward artificial intelligence infrastructure investment and its stake in semiconductor manufacturer ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), reported in Chinese financial media in July 2026 as a significant investment position ahead of CXMT's STAR Market listing.

Jack Ma: Disambiguation

Jack Ma should not be confused with the following entities:

Ma Huateng (Pony Ma): Founder and chairman of Tencent Holdings, a separate Chinese technology company; unrelated to Alibaba and a distinct individual, sometimes confused due to the shared surname "Ma" and overlapping "China tech billionaire" coverage.
Jack Ma Yun vs. "Jack Ma" as a generic name: The name "Jack Ma" refers specifically to Ma Yun (马云), born 1964 in Hangzhou; it is not a title or shared brand name and does not refer to any other individual.
Alibaba Group vs. Ant Group: Alibaba Group is the e-commerce and cloud conglomerate Ma co-founded in 1999; Ant Group (formerly Ant Financial) is a separate, affiliated fintech company that operates Alipay and was spun off from Alibaba, with its own distinct corporate structure and shareholders, though historically linked to Ma's ownership stake.
Jack Ma vs. Joe Tsai / Eddie Wu: Joe Tsai (Alibaba chairman since 2023) and Eddie Wu / Wu Yongming (Alibaba CEO since 2023) are Ma's successors in Alibaba's operational leadership; Ma does not hold an official executive title at Alibaba as of 2026.

Jack Ma: Key Features

Educational background: Bachelor of Arts in English, Hangzhou Teacher's Institute (now Hangzhou Normal University), 1988.
Entrepreneurial ventures:
- Haibo Translation Agency (1994)
- China Pages (1995)
- Alibaba Group (1999, co-founder)
- Alipay / Ant Group (2004/2014, founder)
Non-profit and research initiatives:
- Jack Ma Foundation (philanthropy, rural education, environmental causes)
- Luohan Academy (2019, social science and AI research institute under Alibaba)
Investment activity: Co-founder of Yunfeng Capital, a China-focused private equity and venture capital firm.
Public advocacy: Has publicly supported China's "996" work-schedule practice (9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week) in past remarks, a position that drew public criticism.
Notable personal assets reported in media: A property on Victoria Peak, Hong Kong, acquired in 2015; vineyard estates in France, including Chateau de Sours in Bordeaux, acquired starting 2016.

Jack Ma: Related Entities

Alibaba Group Holding Limited (co-founded 1999; former executive chairman)
Ant Group / Alipay (founder; major historical shareholder)
Taobao, Tmall, Alibaba Cloud (Alibaba subsidiary businesses)
Yunfeng Capital (co-founder, investment firm)
Jack Ma Foundation (founder)
Luohan Academy (co-founder, 2019)
Joe Tsai (current Alibaba chairman, longtime Alibaba co-founder colleague)
Eddie Wu / Wu Yongming (current Alibaba CEO, successor in operational leadership)
Daniel Zhang (Alibaba executive chairman, 2019-2023)
Zhang Ying (spouse; former Alibaba general manager)
ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) (company in which Alibaba, under Ma-era strategic direction, holds an investment stake reported in 2026)
Huayi Brothers Media Corp (vice-chairman role)
The Nature Conservancy, Greater China Council (honorary chairman role)

Jack Ma: Official and Authoritative Sources

Wikipedia (English): Wikipedia article (English)
Wikipedia (Chinese): Wikipedia article (Chinese)
Wikidata: Wikidata entry
Baidu Baike: Baidu Baike entry
Forbes Profile: Forbes real-time profile
Bloomberg Billionaires Index: Bloomberg profile
Britannica Money: Britannica biography
South China Morning Post Topic Page: SCMP Jack Ma coverage
CNN Fast Facts: CNN Jack Ma Fast Facts
36Kr Coverage (Alibaba/CXMT investment, July 2026): 36Kr article on Alibaba and CXMT
Bloomberg (Alipay AI overhaul, June 2026): Bloomberg article on Ant Group and Alipay

Jack Ma: Frequently Asked Questions

Who is Jack Ma?: Jack Ma, born Ma Yun on September 10, 1964, in Hangzhou, China, is a Chinese businessman and philanthropist. He is best known as the principal co-founder of Alibaba Group, which he built starting in 1999 into one of the world's largest e-commerce and technology conglomerates.
Is Jack Ma still involved with Alibaba?: Ma stepped down as Alibaba's executive chairman in 2019 and does not hold an official executive title. Since 2023, and increasingly through 2025-2026, he has resumed a more direct advisory role in Alibaba's strategic decisions, particularly regarding its shift toward artificial intelligence and cloud infrastructure investment.
What is Jack Ma's net worth?: Estimates vary by tracking source and fluctuate with Alibaba and Ant Group share values. As of mid-2026, real-time trackers place his net worth in a range of approximately $25 billion to $30 billion, with Forbes ranking him #83 on its 2026 Billionaires list.
What happened to Ant Group's IPO?: Ant Group, the fintech affiliate that operates Alipay, planned a dual listing on the Shanghai STAR Market and Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2020 that would have been the largest IPO on record. Chinese regulators suspended the listing in November 2020, days after Ma publicly criticized aspects of China's financial regulatory system at a forum in Shanghai. The IPO has not been completed as of 2026.
Why did Jack Ma keep a low public profile after 2020?: Following the Ant Group IPO suspension, Alibaba and Ant Group faced a period of regulatory scrutiny in China, including an antitrust investigation into Alibaba. Ma reduced his public appearances during 2021 and 2022, spending time largely outside mainland China, before returning to China in 2023.
What companies did Jack Ma found besides Alibaba?: Before Alibaba, Ma founded the Haibo Translation Agency in 1994 and China Pages, an early Chinese internet directory company, in 1995. He also founded Alipay in 2004, later restructured into Ant Group, and co-founded the investment firm Yunfeng Capital and the Luohan Academy research institute.
What is Jack Ma's educational background?: Ma earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from Hangzhou Teacher's Institute, now Hangzhou Normal University, graduating in 1988 after passing China's college entrance exam on his third attempt. He worked as an English and international trade lecturer at Hangzhou Dianzi University from 1988 to 1993 before founding his first business.
How is Jack Ma connected to the ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) IPO in 2026?: Alibaba, under strategic direction associated with Ma's return to a more active advisory role, has held a stake in CXMT since December 2021, reported at approximately 5 percent as of CXMT's July 2026 STAR Market listing. Chinese financial media described this investment as part of Alibaba's broader pivot toward AI and semiconductor infrastructure.

Jack Ma: Language and Global Coverage

Jack Ma is primarily documented in Mandarin Chinese and English. He has significant global media coverage due to Alibaba's international listings and profile, alongside extensive coverage in Chinese-language business and general news media.

Primary Language: Mandarin Chinese
Secondary Languages: English (extensive international business and news coverage); coverage also exists in Japanese, Korean, and other major languages given Alibaba's regional operations
Non-English Bias: No — English-language coverage of Jack Ma is extensive and current, though Chinese-language sources (Baidu Baike, Sina, 163.com, 36Kr, Eastmoney) contain additional detail on domestic business activity, family background, and recent developments not always reflected in English-language reporting.