Alwaleed vs Ma

Kingdom Holding Company and Alibaba Group.

The differences

Forbes puts Jack Ma about $1.2B ahead of Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Alsaud.Forbes figures from 9 Oct 2026 and 9 Oct 2026.
Both started the company their money comes from.
Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Alsaud is about 9 years older than Jack Ma.
Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Alsaud has signed the Giving Pledge; Jack Ma has not.
Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Alsaud is from Saudi Arabia; Jack Ma is from China.

Put someone else on either side

Alwaleed

Net worth, Forbes: $24.9BForbes, 9 Oct 2026; $26.1BForbes, 9 Oct 2026
Net worth, Bloomberg: $26.3BBloomberg, 17 Oct 2026; $42BBloomberg, 10 Oct 2026
Forbes rank: No. 100Real-Time list, 9 Oct 2026; No. 91Real-Time list, 9 Oct 2026
Billionaire since: Not stated; Not stated

How it started: Founded itFounded Kingdom Holding in 1980 after graduating from Menlo College, with a modest stake from his father; his best-known early deal was a Citicorp stake bought in 1991; Co-founded itAlibaba was founded in 1999 by 18 people led by Jack Ma; Ant Group grew out of Alipay, set up in 2004
Main source: Kingdom Holding stock, a personal SpaceX stake and Saudi propertyBloomberg's largest items: Kingdom Holding ($10.3 billion), SpaceX ($6.04 billion), Saudi property ($4.5 billion) and Rotana ($1.55 billion); Alibaba and Ant Group shares, dividends and share salesBloomberg: most of his wealth is accumulated cash from dividends and share sales of Alibaba and Ant Group
Companies: Kingdom Holding CompanyKingdom Holding Company: Founder and chairman; Alibaba Group, Ant GroupAlibaba Group: Partner in the Alibaba Partnership and partnership-committee continuity member; Ant Group: Founder; no management role
Biggest stake: Kingdom Holding Company78% owned; Ant Group9.9% owned

Born: 7 Mar 1955; 10 Sep 1964Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
Country: Saudi ArabiaLives in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; ChinaLives in Hangzhou, China
Education: Graduate degreeBS business administration, Menlo College (1979); master's in social science, Syracuse University's Maxwell School (1985); Bachelor's degreeBA in English, Hangzhou Teachers College (1988)
Parents: Son of Prince Talal bin Abdulaziz, a son of Saudi Arabia's founder who served as minister of communications and of finance, and Princess Mona El Solh, daughter of Lebanon's first prime minister; His parents were traditional Chinese musician-storytellers in Hangzhou

Giving Pledge: Signed in 2016; Not a signer
Foundation: Alwaleed PhilanthropiesUmbrella for Alwaleed Philanthropies Global, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia; in 2015 he pledged his fortune to it; Jack Ma FoundationFounded 15 December 2014
Lifetime giving: $4BAlwaleed Philanthropies, 17 Oct 2026. '$4 Billion+ spent on social welfare' by Alwaleed Philanthropies over 39 years, as shown on its site; not a figure for his personal giving alone; $0.3BForbes, 2 Dec 2019. Forbes, citing Alibaba: the Jack Ma Foundation had 'distributed or pledged at least $300 million' since its founding; paid and pledged combined

Role now: Chair of the boardFounder and chairman of Kingdom Holding Company; Founder, no executive rolePartner in the Alibaba Partnership
Successor: None named; Talal Ibrahim AlMaiman is Kingdom Holding's CEONo other family member is listed among Kingdom Holding's executives; Daniel Zhang succeeded him as Alibaba chairman on 10 September 2019
Public office: None found; Member, UK Prime Minister's Business Advisory Group; Special Adviser for Youth Entrepreneurship and Small Business, UNCTAD2015; 2016
Legal record: 2018: Saudi Attorney GeneralReleased in January 2018 after more than two months' detention in a Saudi anti-corruption crackdown; a senior Saudi official said he reached a financial settlement with the attorney general; hours earlier he had told Reuters he expected to be cleared of wrongdoing.; None found