Jack Ma Appears In Europe

Alibaba’s ($BABA@China) Hong Kong shares rallied as much as 9% on Wednesday following reports that its founder Jack Ma traveled to Europe. The stock pared some of those gains and closed 6.6% higher. Ma traveled to Spain over the weekend for a sailing vacation and an agriculture and technology study tour related to environmental issues. Ma’s whereabouts have been the topic of intense discussion since he went out of the public view last October after a speech in which he appeared to criticize Chinese regulators. Alibaba also released some news related to its cloud business this week, launching a new chip designed for servers in a bid to boost its cloud computing capabilities. Cloud is seen as a key part of Alibaba’s growth, currently accounting for 8% of the company’s total revenue. The e-commerce giant also said that it plans to open new data centers in South Korea and Thailand next year to continue the overseas expansion of its cloud business.