(Bloomberg) -- Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. co-founder Jack Ma has joined a pair of senior executives in picking up company stock to show support for its AI ambitions, the South China Morning Post reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
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Ma bought more than HK$600 million ($76.5 million) worth of shares, the newspaper said. The report surfaced after senior executives Joe Tsai and Eddie Wu together acquired at least $20 million worth of stock over past days, according to exchange filings. The shares rose about 0.5% in pre-market US trading.
Alibaba representatives didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.
Ma, who helped turn a tiny e-commerce outfit run out of his apartment into one of China's most powerful tech conglomerates, has in recent years played a more active role at supporting the company. Alibaba this week raised HK$80 billion in Hong Kong's biggest follow-on share offering, underscoring its willingness to amass and spend vast sums to take the lead in global artificial intelligence.
The fundraising reflects Alibaba's eagerness to outspend and outrun Chinese rivals in the chase to define the frontier of AI development. The company has sold off assets and pledged to spend more than 380 billion yuan ($56.5 billion) over three years on AI, from chips and data centers to large-language model development.
But that concentrated effort to challenge Anthropic PBC and OpenAI is already eroding margins, while anemic domestic consumption dogs its mainstay online retail business. The company amped up its capital spending in the June quarter to nearly $10 billion and said it's putting the focus on long-term competitiveness.
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