23 October 2026
Share-backed borrowing helped the Alibaba chairman build a sporting empire. More importantly, it let him hold onto the shares that now give him a powerful voice in the AI era.
More than a decade ago, Alibaba listed on the New York Stock Exchange, turning the paper wealth of co-founder Joseph Tsai, into something bankable. Once the post-IPO lock-up period expired in September 2015, Tsai, alongside co-founder Jack Ma, moved to borrow more than $2 billion against their Alibaba shares.[1] The proceeds were earmarked to fund Blue Pool Capital, the Hong Kong-based family office Tsai had established to manage and grow the fortune that Alibaba’s listing had unlocked.
Pledging shares instead of selling them let Tsai raise real liquidity that allowed him to move fast when the opportunity came. He bought a 49% stake in the Brooklyn Nets in 2018 for $1 billion, with an option to take full control in 2021.
When the opportunity presented itself, he accelerated the timeline: in August 2019, he agreed to pay roughly $1.35 billion for the remaining 51% — a then-record price for any North American sports franchise — plus close to $1 billion for the Barclays Center in a separate transaction.[2] Combined, it was a $3.4 billion bet on a single asset class, made by a founder whose core fortune remained safely parked in Alibaba stock.
The Nets and Barclays Center were only the beginning. Tsai went on to add the WNBA’s New York Liberty to his sports holdings, while Blue Pool Capital — the vehicle his original share-backed loan helped seed — built out a broader private investment portfolio spanning pharmaceuticals, fashion and other sectors entirely removed from Alibaba's core business.[3],[4]
The Nets are now worth more than $5 billion, more than double what Tsai paid.[5]
His 1.9%[6] stake in Alibaba, worth approximately $5 billion[7] as of mid-October, may prove to be a far more valuable asset over the coming years. In 2023, Tsai became chairman of Alibaba and has since bought more shares to solidify control.[8],[9] Alibaba is now one of the key players within China’s AI ecosystem developing both AI platforms as well as hardware technology.[10]
Championing open source AI
Right now, a fierce debate is unfolding in the technology world. Despite its name, OpenAI, the pioneering AI platform, shares few details behind the large language models underpinning its services. Most of the AI start-ups in the West operate closed-source models.
Tsai has long been an evangelist for open-source technology. Last year, he outlined in a forum that the open-source approach taken by Chinese technology firms involved in the AI sector would “drive shared global economic growth and improvements in living standards”.[11]
Alibaba’s flagship Qwen AI is now the world’s most popular AI model.[12] (Alibaba has released many of its Qwen models publicly, so anyone can download them, use them and build on them, often for free.)
Speculation is rife that low-cost open-source Chinese AI models may end up winning market share and threaten the future revenues of Western AI firms like OpenAI and Anthropic, the operator of the Claude AI platform.[13] Tsai has even suggested that European institutions should consider adopting Chinese AI models to ensure strategic autonomy.[14] Some European firms are doing just that, favoring Chinese AI models over European ones.[15]
Moreover, Alibaba could also come out the ultimate winner in China’s AI race given the high costs involved in running AI models.[16],[17]
Tsai may not have anticipated that the e-commerce company he helped found would become one of the central players in China’s AI race. What is clear, however, is that he never lost faith in the firm. Through a decade in which Alibaba’s share price swung and its strategy was repeatedly questioned, his approach of borrowing against his shares mean that he was able to retain his exposure to Alibaba rather than sell it.
It would not be surprising if Alibaba followed the path of EV giant BYD, a company that was long underestimated before emerging as the standout name in its field. If it did, the value of Tsai’s holding would swell with it.
How the AI era will unfold is hard to predict, and the sector’s heavy capital demands cut both ways. But Tsai’s story shows why a founding executive should think carefully before selling down a shareholding.
Tsai’s trajectory illustrates what equity-backed financing makes possible. A founder can use the value he has already created as the springboard for the next chapter of his life, while keeping his hand on the wheel of the business that built his fortune.
[1] https://technode.com/2015/09/07/jack-ma-joseph-tsai-borrow-2-billion-usd-against-alibaba-shares
[2] https://apnews.com/article/65809d727d89488297482cc8d2ccc05c
[3] https://www.wnba.com/news/wnba-announces-sale-of-new-york-liberty-to-joe-tsai/
[4] https://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/blue-pool-capital-raises-1-4b-for-pe-fund-riverside-492346
[5] https://sports.yahoo.com/article/nets-joe-tsai-drops-soaring-142927020.html
[6] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-08-01/alibaba-chairman-tsai-and-wife-to-divorce-new-york-post-reports
[7] https://www.google.com/finance/quote/9988:HKG
[8] https://www.cnbc.com/2024/01/23/alibaba-stock-jack-ma-joe-tsai-buy.html
[9] https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/alibaba-chair-buys-another-720000-company-hk-shares-2026-08-25/
[10] https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/alibaba-plans-ai-model-with-5-trillion-10-trillion-parameters-unveils-new-chip-2026-09-22/
[11] https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3347485/alibaba-chairman-joe-tsai-credits-chinas-ai-edge-power-grid-open-source-models
[12] https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3349552/alibabas-qwen-family-captures-over-50-global-open-source-downloads-report-finds
[13] https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/chinas-open-source-dominance-threatens-us-ai-lead-us-advisory-body-warns-2026-03-23/
[14] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-10-07/alibaba-s-joe-tsai-says-open-source-is-europe-s-best-shot-at-ai
[15] https://www.politico.eu/article/germany-ecosia-search-engine-mistral-china-open-source-ai/
[16] https://www.reuters.com/commentary/breakingviews/chinas-ai-laggard-could-soon-be-its-leader-2026-08-19/
[17] https://www.reuters.com/commentary/breakingviews/chinas-brutal-ai-economics-hold-lessons-us-2026-09-16/
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