BEIJING (Reuters) – Ant Group co-founder Jack Ma expressed confidence in Ant Group’s future, seeing significant opportunities in artificial intelligence for the payments company, in a rare public appearance since China halted the company’s initial public offering in 2020.
On Sunday (08), speaking at the 20th anniversary celebration of Ant Group, which he also co-founded, he hailed the AI technological revolution, according to Chinese media 36kr.
“Our generation is very lucky. We seize the opportunities of the Internet era,” Ma said, according to 36kr. “From today’s perspective, the great changes brought by the AI era in the next 20 years will exceed everyone’s imagination.”
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The executive also said he was grateful for the experiences and challenges that Ant has faced in recent years. “It is these incentives and criticisms that help Ant grow and mature,” he said.
Ma, China’s best-known technology entrepreneur, publicly criticized Chinese regulators in a speech in October 2020, which ultimately caused Ant Group’s IPO to derail. This was followed by regulatory crackdowns on the Chinese technology sector, with Ma largely withdrawing from public life.
Ant operates the mobile payment app, Alipay, in China and in mid-2020, before the IPO was cancelled, the company was valued by some investors at more than $300 billion. Alibaba holds a 33% stake in Ant.
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Since then, fintech has undergone major organizational changes to comply with China’s regulations. Ma relinquished control of Ant Group in 2023.
In July last year, Chinese authorities announced a fine of nearly $1 billion for Ant Group for violating consumer protection and corporate governance laws, ending a years-long regulatory review of the company.
(By Ziyi Tang and Ryan Woo)
