The most significant recent news concerning Jack Ma in 2025 is his return to a hands-on, strategic role at Alibaba Group and his continued interest in agriculture technology. Separately, Ant Group is actively expanding its business and is reportedly planning for an IPO of Ant International.
After maintaining a low public profile for several years following the regulatory crackdown that began in 2020, Jack Ma has become more actively involved in guiding Alibaba's strategy in 2025, which employees are seeing as a push to "Make Alibaba Great Again" (MAGA).
Hands-on Strategic Direction: Ma is reportedly back on Alibaba's campuses and is more directly involved in major strategic decisions, although he does not hold an official executive title.
AI and E-commerce War: His influence is most visible in Alibaba's aggressive pivot toward Artificial Intelligence (AI) and a renewed "war" on e-commerce rivals like JD.com and Meituan. Alibaba is betting heavily on its AI model, Qwen, and has made multi-billion dollar investments in AI infrastructure.
Boosting Morale: His physical presence and public appearances, including a return to Ant Group in late 2024 to highlight its AI potential, have been credited with boosting staff morale and investor confidence, with Alibaba's stock reportedly surging over 90% in 2025.
Ant Group Developments and IPO Plans
Ant Group, the fintech giant spun off from Alibaba and the operator of Alipay, has continued to restructure and expand following the derailment of its massive 2020 IPO.
Jack Ma's Role: Jack Ma formally relinquished control of Ant Group in early 2023, reducing his voting rights and removing him as the controlling shareholder. This restructuring was a key requirement for regulatory compliance.
Acquisitions and Expansion: Ant Group remains highly active in new-tech sectors:
Investment: In September 2025, Ant Group reportedly acquired a stake in Chinese memory chip firm InnoStar.
New Ventures: Ant Group units are entering the humanoid robotics and robotaxi sectors.
Financial Expansion: In early 2025, Ant Group announced a purchase of a controlling stake (50.55%) in a Hong Kong retail stock brokerage, Bright Smart Securities.
Ant International IPO: Reports from early and mid-2025 suggest that Ant Group is planning a Hong Kong IPO for its international business, Ant International, as part of its ongoing strategic evolution.
Jack Ma's "Ant Plantations" (Agriculture and Green Initiatives)
The term "Ant Plantations" can refer to two separate, yet related, interests of Jack Ma: his personal investment in agritech and Ant Group's massive public welfare program, Ant Forest.
1. Personal Investment in Agriculture Technology (AgriTech)
After stepping back from Alibaba's day-to-day operations, Ma has personally and financially pivoted toward agriculture technology, a field he sees as critical for sustainable development.
New Ventures: Ma has incorporated new entities, such as "Hangzhou Ma's Kitchen Food," focused on pre-packaged foods and processing agricultural goods, adding to previous ventures like a marine technology startup.
Vision: His interest is driven by a vision for sustainable agriculture and leveraging technology to increase efficiency and productivity in the food system.
2. Ant Forest Initiative
Ant Forest is a groundbreaking green initiative launched by Ant Group (Alipay) in 2016, which embodies the "plantation" concept on a massive scale.
Gamified Ecology: The program is gamified, encouraging over 650 million users to adopt low-carbon behaviors (like taking public transit or paying utility bills online) to earn "green energy." Once enough energy is collected, a real tree is planted in arid areas of China, such as Inner Mongolia.
Scale of Impact: As of 2025, the project has cumulatively planted over 600 million real trees across 13 provinces, significantly contributing to desertification control and ecological restoration.
Recent Activity: Jack Ma personally visited one of the planting sites, Ant Forest Plot 464 in Inner Mongolia, in August 2025, reaffirming the project's importance and emphasizing water resources as the core challenge for sustainable development.
