Chinese billionaire Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba, highlighted artificial intelligence as a major opportunity for Ant Group during its 20th-anniversary celebration on Sunday.
Ma, who co-founded the fintech affiliate, made a rare public appearance at the event.
“Our generation is very lucky. We seized the opportunities of the Internet era,” Ma said. “From today’s perspective, the great changes brought by the AI era in the next 20 years will exceed everyone’s imagination.”
He also expressed gratitude for the challenges Ant Group had faced, saying, “It is these encouragements and criticisms that help Ant grow and mature.”
In October 2020, Ma’s public criticism of Chinese regulators led to the cancellation of Ant’s planned IPO and regulatory crackdowns across the tech sector. Following these events, Ma largely withdrew from public life and relinquished control of Ant Group in 2023.
In May of the same year, Ma became a visiting professor at Tokyo College, focusing on sustainable agriculture and food production research.
Ant Group operates Alipay, a widely used mobile payment app in China, and was valued at over $300 billion by some investors before its IPO was halted. Alibaba owns a 33% stake in the company. Ant has since undergone significant restructuring to meet regulatory requirements.
In July 2023, Chinese authorities fined Ant nearly $1 billion for violations related to consumer protection and corporate governance, concluding a prolonged regulatory overhaul. On Sunday, Ant Group announced the promotion of President Cyril Han to replace Eric Jing as CEO, effective March 1.
