Tokyo College has announced that Jack Ma has joined as a visiting professor effective May 1 and will research sustainable agriculture and food production projects and conduct entrepreneurship workshops.

Jack Ma, founder of AlibabaPhoto: Minipig5188, Dreamstime.com

The entrepreneur was once China’s most famous businessman and spoke freely to foreign media, but fell out of the spotlight after criticism from Chinese regulators in 2020 and Ant Group, the Alibaba subsidiary he co-founded, was forced to withdraw a planned initial public offering.

“It looks like his business career is over,” said Oshadhi Kumarasiri, an analyst at LightStream Research. “Although he has been successful in this field, he previously worked as an English teacher and has expressed a desire to return to education when he retires.”

The cancellation of Ant’s IPO led to a series of actions against China’s biggest tech giants, including a record $2.8 billion fine imposed on Alibaba for anti-competitive behavior.

In recent months, Beijing has issued a series of public statements announcing that regulatory problems in the internet sector have been resolved in an attempt to boost investor and business confidence.

“Jack is no longer involved in the day-to-day running of the company, but his views and opinions still carry weight and influence behind the scenes,” say insiders.

Since Ma stepped down from the helm of the company he founded, he has been seen in the Netherlands, Spain, Australia, Thailand and Japan.

Chinese authorities tried to convince Ma to return to the mainland and help improve the image of the Chinese government, writes Bloomberg News. But Ma decided to stay abroad, saying he had resigned from his companies to focus on agricultural technology research.

In March, Ma visited a school in Hangzhou to discuss various topics, including ChatGPT, and said he hopes to resume teaching one day. In April, he accepted the position of professor emeritus at the University of Hong Kong.

Ma has long-standing ties to Japan. Masayoshi Son, the founder of SoftBank Group, has supported Alibaba for more than 20 years, and Son and Ma have been longtime friends.

Source photo: Minipig5188, Dreamstime.com