Alibaba becomes the largest IPO in U.S. history, making the chairman and chief of executive Jack Ma the richest man in China.
The surge of shares to over 35% when it opened at $92.70 per share on Friday's trade. It was a lot higher than the company's $68 initial public offering when it closed on Thursday. With $92.70 per share, the company market value amounts to $167.7 billion, which is higher than Amazon's market capitalization of $150.2 billion and only second to Facebook's $200.2 billion.
The rise boosted Ma's stake in the company. His net worth now totals $16 billion, toppling his competitors on the list of richest men in China. When calculating his earnings of $800 million when selling shares, his total net worth grows higher. It's expected to rise to more than $1 billion, and Ma has other shares in sister companies like Alipay.
His rise to the top puts him ahead of the former richest man, Robin Li, the tech icon behind China's Baidu. His net worth is listed as $16.6 billion. Ma also passed by Pony Ma whose net worth is $15 billion. Pony Ma's Tencent is considered a direct competitor of Alibaba in mobile phone users.
Ma is among the top ten richest man in tech, lining him up next to Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Ellison, Larry Page, and Sergey Brin. Forbes listed Ma as the 36th richest man in the world with a net worth of $19.7 billion. In 2013, he was listed as the 395th richest man in the world.
The e-commerce tycoon is a self-made billionaire. He graduated from a teacher's institute and taught English in Hangzhou Danzhi University. He started the China Yellowpages in 1995, believed to be the country's first internet-based company. In 1995, he founded the business-to-business e-commerce website Alibaba, and in 2014, it became the world's largest IPO.
