Saudi Press

Saudi Arabia and the world
Thursday, Oct 02, 2025

Jack Ma is making history again with the Ant IPO, and getting even more wealthy while doing it

Jack Ma is making history again with the Ant IPO, and getting even more wealthy while doing it

Billionaire tech tycoon Jack Ma is raising more than $34 billion in yet another record breaking IPO, further cementing his place in history as one of the world's great tech entrepreneurs.

Financial tech company Ant Group's share sale in Hong Kong and Shanghai — the biggest in history — will catapult Ma to within striking distance of the globe's richest elites. Bloomberg estimates that the 56-year-old's fortune will soon hit $71.1 billion, positioning him as the 11th wealthiest person in the world.

Through e-commerce giant Alibaba (BABA) and now Ant Group, Ma has had a transformational effect on China's internet industry and on hundreds of millions of Chinese consumers. It's hard to go anywhere in China and not see the impact of Alibaba and Ant, said Duncan Clark, author of "Alibaba: The House That Jack Ma Built" and chairman of investment advisory firm BDA China.

If you live in China, "you're going to be touching the companies that Jack founded pretty much every day, and almost every hour in some cases," Clark said.


Jack Ma and China's rise


It's more than just using an app or an online shopping website that Ma helped build. A massive number of Chinese "associate these products with the last 10 years of rising prosperity," Clark said. "There's an emotional element to it."

Ma created Alipay — the payments business that forms the backbone of Ant — as a side project to plug a hole in China's nascent online shopping industry. Before Alipay was created, inefficient state-run banks with reputations for poor customer service were the only options available for most businesses and consumers.

A convenience store owner who needed a few hundred dollars to get through the month would likely not have bothered going to the bank to get a loan because it would have been too troublesome, said Zennon Kapron, founder of financial technology consulting and research firm Kapronasia.
Ant changed all that.

"[Ma's] vision from the very beginning was to enable people to essentially do better and give them the tools to do that," said Kapron.

Through Ant, people can apply for and get decisions on small loans quickly. They can also can pay for things with the tap of a button and they can invest in big money market funds with as little as 1 yuan (15 cents).

Ant's market debut will make Ma a lot richer


Ma's accomplishments are well known in China.

Edith Yeung, China internet expert and general partner with Race Capital, rattled off a list of hurdles that should have stood in the way of his success: He is short, grew up during China's turbulent Cultural Revolution, had no family connections, didn't have an Ivy League degree and founded Alibaba in 1999, two years before the dotcom bubble burst.

Ma represents "the ultimate Chinese dream," Yeung said. That "somebody like him, with all the wrong formula [for success] can get to this point, it's just amazing and astonishing," she said.

"Chinese people look up to him because he looks just like us and he [achieved] mega success, Silicon Valley-style," she added.

Ma is already the wealthiest man in China, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index and the most recent Hurun China Rich List published last week. Ant's IPO will make him even richer.



Ma — who has "ultimate control" over Ant — will hold an 8.8% stake in the company worth more than $27 billion post-IPO, according to regulatory filings.

His fortune will soon exceed that of Oracle's (ORCL) Larry Ellison, L'Oreal (LRLCF) heiress Francoise Bettencourt Meyers and individual members of the Waltons, whose family own Walmart (WMT), according to Bloomberg.

Ant's market debut will also mark the second time Ma has spearheaded a world record shattering IPO.

He was on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange when Alibaba raised an eye popping $25 billion in 2014. It was the largest ever IPO at the time, and was surpassed just last year by Saudi Aramco's $29.4 billion float.

Ant announced on Monday that it is raising more than $34 billion through dual listings in Hong Kong and Shanghai. The shares are expected to start trading in Hong Kong on November 5. peaking at a business conference in Shanghai last week, Ma touted the fact that the pricing for Ant's IPO was "determined outside of New York City," underscoring China's growing clout in finance and tech.

"We didn't dare to think about it five years ago, or even three years ago," Ma said, calling it "a miracle" that such a huge IPO can now take place in Hong Kong and Shanghai.

Alibaba shunned Hong Kong for its market debut in 2014 because the exchange refused to allow it to list with dual-class shares, a corporate structure that gives management more power. Hong Kong changed its rules in 2018, enabling Alibaba to list secondary shares in the city last year.

When Shanghai's new tech board launched last July, it fell in line with the New York Stock Exchange, Nasdaq and Hong Kong by allowing listings of companies with dual-class shares or weighted voting rights.

Ant's IPO also comes as a growing number of Chinese companies have been seeking refuge on national exchanges as tensions between Washington and Beijing ramp up.

"It's kind of ironic validation to do [part of the Ant] listing in Hong Kong. It's perfect timing to stick it in the eye of the United States as well," said Clark.

Beyond regulatory evolutions, Ma has also overseen dramatic changes in China's internet industry. The tech tycoon learned about the internet during a trip to the United States in 1995. Invigorated by the technology, Ma returned to China, where the internet was still virtually unknown.

"The day we got connected to the web, I invited friends and TV people over to my house," he told The New York Times in an interview in 2005. "We waited three and a half hours and got half a page. We drank, watched TV and played cards, waiting. But I was so proud. I proved the internet existed."

Today, Alibaba's platform regularly hosts frenetic live-stream shopping events where millions of consumers watching on smartphones can buy everything from make-up to mangoes. Ma himself appeared alongside a celebrity influencer to take part in a live-stream challenge to sell lipstick in 2018.

The Henry Ford of China


Measuring Ma's impact against his contemporaries, "he ranks right up there ... next to Steve Jobs, and Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos," Kapron said.

Clark, the author, goes back further in time, likening Ma to American industrialist and business magnate Henry Ford.

"In terms of Henry Ford's standardized production, you can think about that in terms of the logistics of the Alibaba empire, and retail, and now with Ant's [impact on China's] finance. Those are three big sectors right there that he's linked in new ways and revolutionized," he said.

Ma stepped down from his role as chairman of Alibaba last year, and has over the years increasingly turned his focus to philanthropic efforts in China and Africa.

He has pledged to donate 611 million of his Ant shares to charitable donations.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Saudi Press
0:00
0:00
Close
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
Nvidia and Abu Dhabi’s TII Launch First AI-&-Robotics Lab in the Middle East
UK, Canada, and Australia Officially Recognise Palestine in Historic Shift
New Eye Drops Show Promise in Replacing Reading Glasses for Presbyopia
Dubai Property Boom Shows Strain as Flippers Get Buyer’s Remorse
Top AI Researchers Are Heading Back to China as U.S. Struggles to Keep Pace
JWST Data Brings TRAPPIST-1e Closer to Earth-Like Habitability
UAE-US Stargate Project Poised to Make Abu Dhabi a Global AI Powerhouse
Trump and Starmer Clash Over UK Recognition of Palestinian State Amid State Visit
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Kuwait opens bidding for construction of three cities to ease housing crunch.
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
Could AI Nursing Robots Help Healthcare Staffing Shortages?
Turkish authorities seize leading broadcaster amid fraud and tax investigation
Qatari prime minister says Netanyahu ‘killed any hope’ for Israeli hostages
Apple Introduces Ultra-Thin iPhone Air, Enhanced 17 Series and New Health-Focused Wearables
Big Oil Slashes Jobs and Investments Amid Prolonged Low Crude Prices
Social Media Access Curtailed in Turkey After CHP Calls for Rallies Following Police Blockade of Istanbul Headquarters
Did the Houthis disrupt the internet in the Middle East? Submarine cables cut in the Red Sea
Gold Could Reach Nearly $5,000 if Fed Independence Is Undermined, Goldman Sachs Warns
Uruguay, Colombia and Paraguay Secure Places at 2026 World Cup
Trump Administration Advances Plans to Rebrand Pentagon as Department of War Instead of the Fake Term Department of Defense
Tether Expands into Gold Sector with Profit-Driven Diversification
Trump’s New War – and the ‘Drug Tyrant’ Fearing Invasion: ‘1,200 Missiles Aimed at Us’
At the Parade in China: Laser Weapons, 'Eagle Strike,' and a Missile Capable of 'Striking Anywhere in the World'
Information Warfare in the Age of AI: How Language Models Become Targets and Tools
Israeli Airstrike in Yemen Kills Houthi Prime Minister
After the Shock of Defeat, Iranians Yearn for Change
YouTube Altered Content by Artificial Intelligence – Without Permission
Iran Faces Escalating Water Crisis as Protests Spread
More Than Half a Million Evacuated as Typhoon Kajiki Heads for Vietnam
HSBC Switzerland Ends Relationships with Over 1,000 Clients from Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Qatar, and Egypt
Sharia Law Made Legally Binding in Austria Despite Warnings Over 'Incompatible' Values
Dogfights in the Skies: Airbus on Track to Overtake Boeing and Claim Aviation Supremacy
Tim Cook Promises an AI Revolution at Apple: "One of the Most Significant Technologies of Our Generation"
Are AI Data Centres the Infrastructure of the Future or the Next Crisis?
Miles Worth Billions: How Airlines Generate Huge Profits
Zelenskyy Returns to White House Flanked by European Allies as Trump Pressures Land-Swap Deal with Putin
Beijing is moving into gold and other assets, diversifying away from the dollar
Cristiano Ronaldo Makes Surprise Stop at New Hong Kong Museum
Zelenskyy to Visit Washington after Trump–Putin Summit Yields No Agreement
×