Down A Notch: Jack Ma loses his title as the richest man in China.

Jack Ma — founder of Alibaba and Ant Group has lost his title as the richest man in China as his empire (company) was put under heavy scrutiny by Chinese regulators.

Jack Ma and his family had coveted the title as China’s richest for a while now- after gaining the recognition of the Hurun Global Rich List in 2019 and 2020. Ma now comes in fourth place on the rich list.

Ma’s recent woes were triggered by a speech he made on the 23rd of Oct. where he told off China’s regulatory system. This led to the suspension of his Ant Group’s $37 billion IPO just days before the fintech giant’s public listing.

China’s Regulators have since tightened anti-trust scrutiny on the tech sector, and Alibaba seems to be taking much of the heat. An official anti-trust probe on Alibaba was launched in December. They have also started tightening their grip on the fintech sector and have asked Ant (One of Ma’s companies) to fold some of its businesses into a financial holding company. Thus regulating ANT like traditional financial firms.

The current richest man in China is Zhong Shanshan who recently made his first appearance at the top spot largely thanks to a rise in share price of Nongfu Spring and Wantai Biological Pharmacy Enterprise, companies he controls