Jack Ma · Full chronicle and history

Photos circulated online show Jack Ma participating in a rice planting activity with some Alibaba staff and former executives in Hangzhou.

Jack Ma appeared at Harvard a few days after attending an event in Hangzhou, and related photos later surfaced online.

In May 2023, after the Ant Group's IPO was halted and Ma Yun had been out of the public eye for a long time, he was appointed a visiting professor at the University of Tokyo's Tokyo College, and thereafter lived in Japan for an extended period, being seen as a representative figure of the wave of Chinese entrepreneurs moving to Japan.

As Ant Group was preparing for its IPO in Shanghai and Hong Kong, its complex multi-layered equity structure and the hidden shareholdings of red-aristocracy bloodlines, such as the families of Jiang Zemin and Jia Qinglin, were exposed, leading to the suspension of its listing plan.

On November 3, 2020, following Jack Ma's Bund speech criticizing financial regulation, the Shanghai Stock Exchange announced the suspension of Ant Group's A-share listing just two days before it was scheduled to go public. The Hong Kong Stock Exchange followed suit immediately, halting the world's largest IPO.

On November 2, 2020, Jack Ma and executives of Ant Group were jointly summoned by four regulatory authorities. The following day, the Shanghai Stock Exchange announced the suspension of Ant Group's listing.

On October 24, 2020, Jack Ma criticized the “pawnshop mentality” of Chinese financial regulators and banks at the Shanghai Bund Financial Summit — the last time he appeared on China’s public stage in an offensive posture.

In 2017, Gao Xiaosong composed and produced "Feng Qingyang," the theme song for the martial arts short film "Gong Shou Dao" starring Jack Ma, and invited Faye Wong and Jack Ma to sing it together.

In 2016, Shentong Express went public in Shenzhen. Previously, Alibaba founder Jack Ma had invested in Shentong, pushing it to leverage the growth of online shopping to expand its courier business.

Jack Ma teamed up with entrepreneurs like Liu Chuanzhi and Feng Lun to found Hupan University, replicating a shared entrepreneurial identity and commercial network through alumni networks and unified training.

Entrepreneurs such as Jack Ma, Guo Guangchang, and Ding Lei established the Jiangnan Club. Through joint investments in projects like Huayi Brothers and Cainiao Network, they further bound their capital into a community of shared interests.