Billionaire investor Ryan Cohen has increased his personal stake in Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group (9988) to roughly US$1 billion (HK$7.8 billion) in recent months, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.

Cohen's position represents about 7 million shares, the report said.

Cohen had built a stake in Alibaba worth hundreds of millions of dollars in early 2023 and was pushing the company to increase and speed up share buybacks while arguing that the shares were undervalued, sources had then told Reuters.

According to the WSJ report, Cohen, who had then expressed interest in having a long-term relationship with Alibaba, has had discussions with the company more recently.

Chinese tech stocks have been on the ascent in recent days, after the emergence of domestic artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek. A meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and business leaders in the sector has also boosted investor sentiment.

Earlier in the day, Alibaba reported third-quarter revenue above analysts' estimate on the back of strong year-end sales and flagged plans to invest more in AI and cloud computing.

Its US-listed shares rose as much as 15 percent during the day and closed up more than 8 percent. They have jumped more than 60 percent so far this year.

Cohen, known as the "meme king" for his ability to mobilize an army of retail investors during the pandemic-era meme stock craze, built his fortune by co-founding online pet retailer Chewy and cemented it with investments in videogame retailer GameStop and tech giant Apple.

The billionaire investor had revealed a 9.8 percent stake in Bed Bath & Beyond in March 2022 and pushed for changes at the home goods retailer, but abruptly sold his stake five months later. Bed Bath filed for bankruptcy in April 2023.

REUTERS

Ryan Cohen had reportedly expressed interest in having a long-term relationship with Alibaba. Photo by REUTERS

Billionaire investor Ryan Cohen boosts stake in Alibaba to US$1 billion, WSJ reports