Jack Ma makes rare visit to Alibaba headquarters in Hangzhou

FILE PHOTO: Jack Ma, founder and executive chairman of China's Alibaba Group, speaks in front of a picture of SoftBank's human-like robot named 'pepper' during a news conference in Chiba, Japan, June 18, 2015. REUTERS/Yuya Shino/File Photo

BEIJING (Reuters) - Alibaba founder Jack Ma, largely out of public view amid a regulatory clampdown on the group, made a rare visit to its Hangzhou campus on Monday during the e-commerce giant's annual "Ali Day" staff and family event, company sources said.

The billionaire has kept an extremely low profile since delivering a speech in October in Shanghai criticising China's financial regulators, which set off a chain of events that led to the shelving of what would have been a record $37 billion initial public offering of Alibaba's affiliate Ant Group.