Alibaba Group co-founder and executive chairman Jack Ma attending the opening debate of the 2018 edition of the WTO public forum on sustainable trade, at the WTO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, Oct. 2, 2018. AFP-Yonhap

Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba Group Holding, gave a rare public speech at the 20th anniversary of the company's fintech affiliate Ant Group, saying he had faith in the "next 20 years of Ant" and expects "more miracles", according to Chinese media reports and people who were there.

Ma's attendance at the evening event on Sunday was the first time he had addressed Ant since it withdrew its mega initial public offering (IPO) in Hong Kong and Shanghai in November 2020.

Early last year, the Chinese entrepreneur distanced himself from Ant by promising to cede control of the fintech giant. At the end of 2023, China's central bank declared that Ant's mobile payments platform Alipay had "no actual controller."

In his brief speech, Ma, one of Ant's founders, congratulated the company's achievements. While he has resigned from corporate roles and kept a low profile in recent years, Ma is still regarded as the spiritual leader of the business empire he created and a face of China's private sector.

"Twenty years ago, the internet had just begun, and my generation was fortunate to seize the opportunities offered by the internet," Ma said. "From today's perspective, the changes brought by artificial intelligence in the next 20 years will go beyond everyone's imagination, as AI will bring a greater era."

"AI will change everything, but it doesn't mean AI can dictate everything," he said. "While technology is important, the real truth to determine success or failure is whether we can create truly valuable and unique things in the coming era."

Ma, 60, said that Ant would continue to use technology to bring "progress and changes" to people's lives in the next two decades.

Ant did not publish any statement about Ma's speech, but its transcript and video clips have gone viral on Chinese social media platforms.

People walk past the Ant Group logo at its booth at the China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) in Beijing, China, Sept. 2, 2023. Reuters-Yonhap

In a photo published by local tech news website 36Kr, Ma was seen seated at the event, sandwiched between Eric Jing Xiandong, Ant's chairman, and Peng Lei, co-founder of Alibaba and Alipay.

Ma delivered his speech just hours after Ant said Jing would hand over his CEO position to finance chief Cyril Han Xinyi from March 2025, as Jing focuses on his role as chairman.

Since its founding in 2014, Ant Group, along with Alipay, has revolutionized payments in China and ushered the country into a cashless era. At the same time, the rapid rise of fintech technologies have brought disruptions to the nation's traditional financial system, prompting regulators to respond by imposing licensing requirements and demanding business rectifications.

Ant overhauled its shareholding structure in early 2023 when Ma promised to end an acting-in-concert pact with Ant chairman Jing, former CEO Simon Hu Xiaoming and Alibaba veteran Jiang Fang. The restructuring, which gave Ma 53.46 percent of the voting power in the fintech company, was part of a regulatory campaign that followed the postponement of Ant's $39.7 billion stock sale.

Ma, who visited an Alibaba campus in Hangzhou a week ago, did not mention Ant's IPO plans or other business specifics in his speech. But he said that he was grateful to those who encouraged or "criticized" Ant over the past years.

"These encouragement and criticisms can help Ant grow and provide safeguards for Ant to go further in a more steady way," Ma said. "The future will not be easy, but we are fortunate as we can join hands to change the future and create the future."

Read the full story at SCMP.