World / Billionaire Jack Ma is laying low, not missing or captured: Reports

Beijing: Alibaba jumped as much as 5% on Tuesday after CNBC's David Faber reported that its billionaire founder Jack Ma is not missing, but is instead lying low.

"He's not missing," Faber said, adding "what I can tell you is that he's very likely in Hangzhou, where Alibaba is headquartered, and is being less-visible, purposefully...but that doesn't mean that he's missing."

Alibaba slid as much as 3% on Monday following reports that Ma hadn't been seen in public for more than two months and missed a previously scheduled appearance on a business competition TV show he was set to judge.

In recent months, Ma's Ant Group and Alibaba have come under increasing regulatory pressure from Chinese authorities.

Ant Group's planned November IPO was scrapped after the Chinese government amped up its regulatory pressure on the fintech giant. The company is now grappling with new rules that could potentially alter its business model.

Alibaba also suffered A probe into the e-commerce giant's seller exclusivity tactics was opened in December as the company is now being investigated by authorities for antitrust violations.

The ramp up in regulatory pressure in Ma's businesses came weeks after Ma criticized China's financial regulatory system at a conference in Shanghai. Ma reportedly dismissed the China's global financial regulations as "an old people's club" and said that "we can't use yesterday's methods to regulate the future."