Beijing, February 11: Jack Ma, Alibaba founder, whose whereabouts have been under speculation for months now, was spotted playing golf on the Sun Valley Golf Resort in Chinese island of Hainan. The Chinese business tycoon is believed to working on his golf game as he was spotted at the Sun Valley Golf Resort, a secluded 27-hole course in Hainan, reports said. According to a report by TOI, this is the first known sighting of the tycoon since he joined a live-streamed video chat with rural educators on January 20.

Ma, a former English teacher, became the international poster boy for Chinese e-commerce. On January 20, Ma reappeared in public view after at least three months amid increased scrutiny of his companies by Chinese regulators, thus ending speculation about his whereabouts. The news took the shares of the company up more than 8 percent in Hong Kong. Jack Ma Found Repairing AC? Viral Video Claiming Alibaba's Founder Hanging on AC Unit is FAKE, Here's The Fact Check.

Ma, who is China’s highest-profile entrepreneur, had not appeared in a public setting since a late October forum in Shanghai where he blasted China’s regulatory system in a speech. This put him on a collision course with officials, resulting in the suspension of a $37 billion IPO of Alibaba’s Ant Group fintech arm. Reports inform that within weeks of his speech at the Bund Summit in Shanghai, authorities scuttled Ant's listing.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 11, 2021 02:43 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).