Bloomberg - - Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. pledged 100 billion US$ $15.5 billion over five years for the long term of Xi Jinping's vision of common prosperity, becoming the latest tech giant to bankroll China s broad aim to share the wealth
China s second-largest company will spread the money between 10 initiatives encompassing technology investment and support to small businesses, the government-backed Zhejiang Daily reported Thursday. An Alibaba spokesperson confirmed the report, without elaborating. The company shares were little changed in New York trading.
Alibaba joins a growing number of its biggest peers in promising to give back after accumulating massive wealth during a decade-long mobile Internet boom. Pinduoduo Inc. the fast-growing online commerce giant has challenged Alibaba in the countryside and pledged its next $1.5 billion in profit to farmers welfare. Tencent Holdings Ltd. China s most valuable company, said last month it would double the amount of money it is allocating to social responsibility programs to approximately $15 billion.
They re joined a growing number of tech billionaires, from PDD s Colin Huang to ByteDance Ltd.'s Zhang Yiming and Xiaomi Corp. Lei Jun, in giving massive sums to a plethora of causes. The largesse coincides with a period of increased scrutiny over the Power and Influence of China's biggest corporations from Alibaba to Tencent that received a $2.8 billion fine for allegedly abusing its market dominance.
Alibaba s plan to commit 100 billion yuan $15.5 billion to help finance mainland China's push for common prosperity points to greater social accountability, is easily affordable and could help resolve regulatory concerns; it may look dramatic, but our underlying view on sales and earnings is unaffected. The amount to be deployed until 2025, is just 31% of Alibaba s current cash balance and compares with its trailing 12 months free cash flow of $24 billion. The agreement also puts Alibaba on parity with Tencent, which had earlier stepped up to Alibaba.