Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma is currently in Spain for an agriculture and technology tour, according to reports.
PHILIPPE LOPEZ/AFP/Getty Images
Alibaba stock (ticker: BABA) continued to march higher on Wednesday, a day after the Chinese e-commerce giant unveiled its own server chip, as its co-founder Jack Ma reportedly flew to Europe.
The company’s Hong Kong-listed shares surged nearly 7% on Wednesday, after its American depositary receipts (ADRs) closed 6% higher on Tuesday. The U.S.-listed shares were set to keep rising, trading close to 3% higher in premarket trading Wednesday.
This follows news that Ma is in Europe for a series of meetings, his first overseas trip in more than a year, the South China Morning Post reported. Ma is currently in Spain for an agriculture and technology tour related to environmental issues, the SCMP report added, citing a person familiar with his itinerary.
The billionaire has largely stayed under the radar since he made a speech in October 2020 criticizing financial regulation in China. Following his first public appearance after that speech, in January this year, the ADRs climbed 5.5% in a single day. Alibaba has since been hit by Beijing’s wide-ranging tech crackdown, which started with China’s move to halt the initial public offering of Ant Group, an affiliate company of Alibaba.
The fact that Ma has traveled to Europe was “raising hopes the tech clampdown was easing,” Oanda analyst Jeffrey Halley said in a note Wednesday.
The Chinese internet giant launched a new chip Tuesday to boost its cloud computing services as it looks to keep challenging Amazon (AMZN), Microsoft (MSFT) and Google (GOOGL) in what is a fast-growing market. The chip, built on cutting-edge 5-nanometer technology, is the third semiconductor introduced by Alibaba since 2019 and comes amid Beijing’s push for semiconductor independence.
Alibaba’s new server chip is based on the architecture of British software company Arm Holdings and has been developed by the company’s in-house semiconductor unit T-Head. It will be used in new servers called Panjiu, which are more specialized in artificial intelligence and storage.
Alibaba has been focused on growing its cloud services, announcing a three-year, $28 billion investment in infrastructure last year.
Write to Callum Keown at [email protected]
