Alibaba Group is a publicly traded multinational conglomerate, meaning it is owned by a wide range of institutional and retail shareholders who hold its shares traded on the Hong Kong (9988) and New York Stock Exchanges (BABA)[4][5]. The company is governed by a unique corporate structure featuring the Alibaba Partnership, an internal management group with special rights.
The Alibaba Partnership has the exclusive authority to nominate a simple majority of the members of Alibaba’s board of directors as long as certain partnership conditions are met. This is a specialized “weighted voting rights structure” (WVR) that ensures managerial control remains with the Partnership, even if they do not hold a majority of the company’s equity. Changes to this control structure require a 95% supermajority vote by shareholders[5].
Among Alibaba’s largest shareholders are major global institutional investors and mutual funds, but no single individual or institution owns a controlling stake based on publicly available data. Notably, Jack Ma, Alibaba’s co-founder, has significantly reduced his direct equity stake in recent years; he is no longer the controlling shareholder but continues to exercise influence through his role in the Alibaba Partnership[3][5]. In December 2022, a state-linked investment fund took a 1% golden share in two of Alibaba’s key subsidiaries (Youku and UCWeb), giving the Chinese government some level of oversight over certain strategic assets[3].
Recent years have seen Alibaba actively repurchase large amounts of its own shares (for example, $11.9 billion in fiscal year 2025) to improve capital structure and shareholder value; however, these buybacks do not materially alter the underlying governance structure, as control remains anchored in the Alibaba Partnership[1][6].
Leave a Reply