Jack Ma. Photo credit: World Economic Forum/Jolanda Flubacher, under Creative Commons license

Alibaba’s famed founder, Jack Ma, who stepped down from the company last year, has trimmed his stake in the e-commerce giant he founded from 6.2% to 4.8% and pocketed an estimated $8 billion as a result. Ma’s stake trim was made known by an annual filing from the company. Alibaba didn’t disclose the average share selling price of Ma’s divestment but going by historical data (during the period of divestment), he’ll have pocketed around $8 billion from his sales. Ma isn’t the only one who cut his stake as so did Joseph Tsai, Alibaba’s Executive Vice Chairman. Tsai cut his Alibaba stake from 2.2% to 1.6% and reaped an estimated $3 billion as a result.

Both Ma and Tsai have become steadily less involved in Alibaba’s operations and seem to have shifted their focus to philanthropic activities. Amid a coronavirus pandemic, they both donated millions of units on personal protective equipment to hospitals worldwide to help fight the virus.

As indicated by a filing made in April of last year, Jack Ma plans to sell up to 21 million Alibaba shares to support his philanthropic efforts.