How Alibaba overcame Beijing’s crackdown to become an AI giant

On a cold November evening in Shanghai in 2020, the world’s largest IPO was abruptly canceled by Chinese regulators.

It was Ant Group, the fintech affiliate of tech giant Alibaba. The company’s founder Jack Ma, one of China’s most famous billionaires, was under scrutiny for comments seemingly criticising the country’s financial regulators.  

What followed was four years of pressure on Ma’s empire.

Since the IPO cancelation, more than $400 billion has been wiped off Alibaba’s value, even with a more recent rally. In the months after the failed public listing, Ma retreated from the public eye and Alibaba, China’s biggest e-commerce player, looked down and out, with management and structure changes bearing little fruit. The moves were not characteristic of the grit the company had shown in the past and a far cry from its strong position now.

But those who know Ma know never to count him out.

“The hallmark of Jack and his personality is that he never gave up,” Brian Wong, a former Alibaba executive and author of “The Tao of Alibaba,” told CNBC.

Wong features in my new show “Built for Billions,” in which I explore Alibaba’s most testing moments and delve into how it grew to become one of the world’s biggest tech companies and one of the most advanced artificial intelligence players.

I have attended Alibaba’s Singles Day in both Shanghai — where it featured a huge gala with celebrities and music performances — and at its headquarters in Hangzhou. The whole company is mobilized as billions of dollars are transacted across its platforms in a short space of time. Those experiences provided a real insight into the scale of the company.

Alibaba has sometimes been compared to U.S. tech giant Amazon. But it’s not an apples-to-apples comparison.

“Alibaba now, is seen as a serious player in technology, not just an e-commerce company,” Duncan Clark, an early advisor to Alibaba and chairman of consultancy firm BDA China, told CNBC’s “Built for Billions.”