Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma has decided to halt his plans to sell Alibaba's stock following a recent decline in its stock price. Last Thursday, the Chinese tech giant abandoned its intention to spin off its $11 billion cloud business, leading to a substantial drop in the company's stock value, wiping out $26 billion over a period of two days.

Earlier, Ma's family trust had planned to offload 10 million American Depository Shares (ADS) of Alibaba, valued at $870 million. However, the regulatory filings for the sale were made public on Thursday, negatively impacting investor confidence and causing concern among company employees, as reported by Reuters on Wednesday.

In an attempt to restore confidence among its staff, Alibaba circulated an internal memo assuring them that Ma "has not sold a single share." Chief People Officer Jane Jiang Fang, in the note obtained by Bloomberg, emphasized that Ma had made a public statement confirming his continued ownership of Alibaba shares, and suggested that the timing of the disclosure was a "coincidence" leading to a "severe misunderstanding."

Furthermore, Ma's office reportedly shared with the South China Morning Post on Friday that he remains "very positive" about Alibaba, the media company that Alibaba owns.

Since departing Alibaba's board in 2020 and stepping down as CEO in 2019, Jack Ma has been gradually reducing his stake in the company. The recent sell-off, which was the sharpest in over a year for Alibaba's shares, resulted in Ma's fortune decreasing to approximately $30 billion, reflecting a 9% decline year-to-date based on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Interestingly, Ma was once Asia's richest person, with a net worth of $60 billion at the peak of his fortune in late October 2020.

The decline in Alibaba's stock price can be attributed in part to the backlash faced by Ma's companies after he criticized the Beijing government in late 2020, which resulted in increased scrutiny and regulatory actions. Additionally, China's broader crackdown on the tech sector led to a significant decrease in the market value of several major Chinese tech companies, including Alibaba, Tencent, Meituan, Baidu, and JD.com, amounting to $1.1 trillion as of July 2020. However, regulatory tensions appeared to ease slightly as Beijing indicated a relaxation of regulatory actions in the same month.

As of Wednesday, Alibaba's shares in the US closed at $78.96, displaying no change. Year-to-date, the stock has seen a decline of 10%.

Business Insider reached out to Alibaba for comment on the matter, although the company has not responded at the time of writing.