<p><img src="https://static4.businessinsider.com/image/5fa2ed511df1d50018218dc8-1745/GettyImages-1031126440.jpg" border="0" alt="alibaba jack ma" data-mce-source="Valery SharifulinTASS via Getty Images" data-mce-caption="Jack Ma in 2018."></p><p></p><bi-shortcode id="summary-shortcode" data-type="summary-shortcode" class="mceNonEditable" contenteditable="false">Summary List Placement</bi-shortcode><p>Alibaba founder Jack Ma is not missing as was reported, CNBC anchor <a href="https://twitter.com/CNBCnow/status/1346465044134031361">David Faber reported Tuesday morning</a>.</p><p>"He is being less visible, purposefully," Faber said after noting that he has closely covered Ma and his businesses. "And you can expect for that to be the case for some time."</p><p>Faber, citing sources, said Ma is simply laying low amid the Chinese Communist Party's crackdown on Alibaba and Ant Group. <a href="https://au.finance.yahoo.com/news/jack-ma-missing-232138645.html">Yahoo Finance reported</a> over the weekend that Ma hadn't been publicly seen in two months since China pulled his fintech firm Ant Group's monster $37 billion IPO in early November.</p><p>"He may not have shown up, but he's not missing," Faber said on CNBC Tuesday. "He hasn't been captured, he hasn't been taken, this is not a Chairman Wu situation," referring to the <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-anbang-regulation/china-seizes-control-of-anbang-insurance-as-chairman-prosecuted-idUSKCN1G7076">Anbang Insurance chairman</a> who was sentenced to 18 years in prison in 2018. </p><p><a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-ant-group-jack-ma-idUSKBN2991DA">Reuters</a> previously reported that Ma could have been directed to "lay low" due to China's regulatory crackdown, according to Duncan Clark, chairman of the China-based tech company BDA China.</p><p>Faber said Ma is "very likely" to be in Hangzhou, where Alibaba's headquarters are. Ma <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/alibaba-founder-jack-ma-steps-down-from-460-billion-empire-2019-9">stepped back</a> from leading company operations in 2019.</p><p>Ma's Ant Group was poised to raise a whopping amount in his dual-listing IPO on <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/ant-group-ipo-suspended-shanghai-hong-kong-china-regulators-2020-11-1029758861">November 3.</a> But on October 24, Ma publicly <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jack-ma-financial-regulations-ant-group-alibaba-2020-10">snubbed</a> the Chinese financial regulatory system, and it was later reported that Chinese President Xi Jinping himself personally instructed regulators to dig into Ant's financial risks following Ma's comments.</p><p><em><strong>Read more:</strong> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/what-happened-ant-group-ipo-jack-ma-alipay-2020-11">How Chinese regulators stopped Ant's would-be record-breaking $37 billion IPO</a></em></p><p>China responded by introducing new micro-lending rules that impacted Ant and disqualified it in its IPO. The government pulled its Shanghai listing, and Ant <a href="https://www1.hkexnews.hk/listedco/listconews/sehk/2020/1103/2020110302285.pdf">willingly</a> put a stop to its Hong Kong listing on the same day. </p><p>Ma <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jack-ma-offered-parts-ant-group-to-china-2020-12">reportedly offered to give parts of Ant Group</a> to the Chinese government on November 2 in an attempt to appease them following his comments. "You can take any of the platforms Ant has, as long as the country needs it," Ma reportedly told regulators, according to the <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/jack-ma-makes-ant-offer-to-placate-chinese-regulators-11608479629">Wall Street Journal.</a></p><p>But the offer failed to win China over, and the government has since ordered Ant Group to overhaul its financial business and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/china-orders-ant-group-change-business-return-payment-origins-2020-12">"return to its payment origins."</a> China is also conducting an antitrust investigation into Alibaba.</p><p><em><strong>Read more:</strong> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/china-government-forces-chinese-companies-process-stolen-us-data-report-2020-12" data-analytics-module="body_link" data-analytics-post-depth="60" data-uri="f8ec5602f82d700a8dfe1661f942fc01">China reportedly demanded that big Chinese tech companies like Alibaba process stolen US data for the nation's top spies upon request</a></em></p><p>As Business Insider's Allana Akhtar reported, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jack-ma-other-chinese-businessmen-disappeared-public-life-2021-1">this isn't the first time</a> that powerful businessmen have disappeared in China after going head-to-head with the government.</p><p>Asset manager Xiao Jianhua, for example, was <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-hongkong-billionaire-idUSKBN15Q09Q">abducted from a Hong Kong hotel</a> in 2017 and was taken into Chinese custody after regulators accused him and others of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/feb/13/the-darkest-time-hong-kong-reels-over-disappearance-of-xiao-jianhua-chinese-billionaire">siphoning off investors</a> from the nation's stock markets. China later took control of parts of his business.</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/what-happened-ant-group-ipo-jack-ma-alipay-2020-11" >Jack Ma hasn't been seen in public since Ant Group's IPO was pulled. Here's how Chinese regulators slammed the brakes on the firm's would-be record-breaking $37 billion IPO.</a></strong></p><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jack-ma-not-missing-alibaba-china-2021-1#comments">Join the conversation about this story »</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/what-its-like-make-beer-with-picobrew-c-home-brew-2020-3">We tested a machine that brews beer at the push of a button</a></p>
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