In at least two months after the Chinese billionaire failed to turn up for the final of an African talent show produced by him, Alibaba founder Jack Ma has reportedly not made a public appearance.

Ma was one of the judges for "Africa's Business Heroes" a TV show founded by Ma to offer promising African entrepreneurs a chance to win US$1.5 million to build their own business.

In November 2020, when Ma was replaced by an Alibaba executive for the show's finale, an Alibaba spokesman told the Financial Times that "due to a scheduling conflict" the billionaire was unable to participate in the judging panel.

His absence contributed to rumors that he may have died.

Ant Group is an affiliate of the Ma-founded Alibaba Group and owns the largest digital payment network in China, Alipay.

CNBC announced in October 2020 that Ant Group was expected to become the largest IPO listing of all time.

After the firm set its share price at 68.8 yuan (S$14.02) each, it was expected to collect US$34.5 billion (S$45.41 billion).

The company's valuation, based on the pricing, will be US$313.37 billion.

According to its regulatory filing, Ant Group was scheduled to start trading in Hong Kong on Nov. 5, 2020, prior to intervention by Chinese regulators.

The businessman criticized global banking standards at a summit in Shanghai on Oct. 24, saying that the Chinese regulatory framework was stifling innovation and needed changes to push for more growth.

"In China, there are no systemic financial risks, because China does not have a system," Ma said.

Ma's remark is said to have caused a sequence of events that ultimately led to the November 2020 suspension of the IPO listing of Ant Party.

Sources close to Ma told Reuters that senior financial regulatory officials were unhappy with Ma's remarks, one of whom described the speech as a "punch in their faces"

A senior regulatory source told Reuters before Ma's speech that Chinese regulators were already increasingly growing their surveillance of Ma's business empire.

On Oct. 24, Ma's statement triggered a series of escalations, including senior political officials asking regulators for a comprehensive analysis of the businesses of the Ant Party.

Written guidelines were passed on to regulators, including Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, Xi Jinping's trusted economic advisor, who immediately moved to publish a consultation paper to tighten China's micro-lending market laws, directly affecting the Ant Community.

Less than two days before its listing, the company's IPO was suspended by the Shanghai Stock Exchange, which, according to Reuters, could have added at least US$27 billion to Ma's net worth.

Though Ma's whereabouts are still unknown, Oct. 10, 2020, was his last tweet.

His last update was on Oct. 17, 2020, on his Weibo website.

Ma also tweeted about "Africa's Business Heroes" in August, noting that he "can't wait to meet" the show's finalists.

The show's finalists pitched their proposals directly to Ma himself in 2019, vying for prize money of US$1 million.

Internationally, Ma's high profile is attributable to his multiple initiatives, including the formation of the Jack Ma Foundation, which during the Covid-19 pandemic donated tens of millions of masks globally.

In the early days of his career, Ma started out as an English teacher in Hangzhou, before eventually creating his business empire from scratch.

While the global image of Ma has attracted a broad fanbase worldwide, his high profile could attract unwanted attention back at home.

Chinese authorities have been closely watching tycoons in China for a long time, with those who step out of line losing their businesses or facing worse fates.

Chinese billionaire Ren Zhiqiang was sentenced to 18 years in jail and fined 4.2 million yuan (S$844,000) on corruption charges in September 2020.

Ren is a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) vocal critic, referring in an article circulated on the Internet since March 2020 to Xi as an "emperor" and a "clown"

The late Chinese billionaire Xu Ming, who faced his demise in 2012, also suffered ill fate after his political patron Bo Xilai was jailed for corruption and embezzlement.

According to the NY Times, Xu allegedly died of a heart attack in prison at 44 years of age in 2015.