Jack Ma has told Ant executives as well as Alibaba not to be too obsessed with his return. At the same time, the billionaire has pledged to support Alibaba’s success even while abroad.
Visiting Professor-This is a type of title conferred on non-university professionals to teach or research at the university for a short period of time, usually from 3 months to 1 year.
According to the school’s website, 58-year-old billionaire Jack Ma will take up his new position from May 1, 2023 and is expected to give lectures in a number of fields. This visiting professor will provide advice on a number of research topics, particularly in the area of sustainable food-agriculture. In addition, Jack Ma will also talk about issues related to startups and innovative technology.
As one of China’s most prominent businessmen, Jack Ma has disappeared from public view since 2020 after a scandalous speech to Ant Group, Alibaba’s financial subsidiary.
In March 2023, Jack Ma appeared at the Hangzhou headquarters, sparking speculation that he would return to power.
“It is clear that Jack Ma’s career as an entrepreneur is over. Although he has been successful in business, with his experience as an English teacher, Jack Ma expressed his desire to return to teaching when he retired from his empire”, LightStream Research analyst Ashadhi Kumarasiri said.
At present, the University of Tokyo has not specified in detail which subject Jack Ma will teach and in which semester.
End of career?
After Jack Ma’s scandalous speech in 2020, the Beijing government blocked Ant’s IPO, and conducted a review and tightened management of Alibaba and the technology industry, then education, real estate, video games on the Internet.
According to Bloomberg, policymakers have lashed out at the power of large technology corporations such as Alibaba or Tencent, forcing them to go into the framework, thereby redirecting to strategic priority areas such as semiconductors or artificial intelligence.
Since 2020, Jack Ma has almost disappeared from the media. This billionaire has been caught in the Netherlands, Spain, Australia, Thailand and Japan, but no one knows what the purpose of the trips is.
Bloomberg’s source said that recently, the Chinese government asked Jack Ma to return home, appear in public to show support for Alibaba’s restructuring plan.
However, the move to become a visiting professor of Alibaba in Japan shows that the founder has decided to completely withdraw from his empire to focus on research for agricultural technology development.
In March 2023, Jack Ma returned to his headquarters in Hangzhou to visit a school to talk about technology, including ChatGPT. Here, the founder of Alibaba expressed his desire to return to the old teaching profession.
Then in April 2023, Jack Ma became an emeritus professor of the University of Hong Kong but did not give any lectures or speeches about the event.
With Japan, Jack Ma is famous as a businessman with close links to this economy. Billionaire Masayoshi Son, the founder of SoftBank, is the one who poured money into Alibaba more than 20 years ago when the empire was still zero.
Source: Bloomberg
