Expensive conflict: how much did the conflict with the authorities cost Jack Ma

Jack Ma's conflict with the Chinese government cost his companies, Ant Group and Alibaba Group Holding, $850 billion. This is reported by Bloomberg.

At the beginning of last week, the Chinese authorities announced the completion of an investigation into Ant Group, a financial technology company that will pay a fine of almost $1 billion.

The conflict began after Ma criticized Beijing's financial sector regulation in 2020, which led to the cancellation of Ant Group's largest-ever public offering.

However, the costs for Alibaba and Ant Group are not limited to fines. After the public offering was canceled, Ant Group was forced to revise its business model and stop operations in sensitive sectors of the economy and refuse to compete with state-owned banks. As a result, the company's valuation dropped from the expected $315 billion after the IPO to $78.5 billion.

Alibaba has also become the target of a campaign to strengthen control over the IT sector in China.

In March of this year, Alibaba announced the division of its business into six separate units, each of which is to raise funds independently and plan an IPO. The plan was approved by Chinese regulators.

After the announcement of the completion of the investigation into Ant Group, Alibaba's shares rose by 8%, and the company's market value reached $234 billion. However, this is $620 billion less than the company's peak value in 2020.

Jack Ma is currently ranked seventh on Forbes' list of the richest Chinese with a fortune of $24.3 billion.

Despite the pressure that his companies are under, Ma has recently become more active in the public space. In particular, he took part in the final stage of a math competition organized by Alibaba in Hangzhou. Jack Ma's activity is more related to his teaching than to his business.