The co-founder of Alibaba, Jack Ma, is planning to leave the company

Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma, the richest person in China and the largest builder of one of the country's most successful companies, plans to leave the company and plans to unveil a succession plan next week . South China Morning Post (via TechCrunch).

In an interview with the Morning PostMa said he met with senior officials 10 years ago and "asked what Alibaba would do without me," putting in place a system that would prepare the next generation of company leaders. Friday, The New York Times said Ma would pull out to focus on philanthropy. An Alibaba spokesman said the Times story was taken "out of context and [was] factually false, "noting that Ma will remain executive chairman of the company and" will provide transition plans over a significant period of time ".

Ma, 53, founded Alibaba in 1999 and helped her develop a $ 420 billion business that was instrumental in how Chinese citizens buy and pay for products online. It holds a 6.4% stake in the company, giving it a net worth of more than $ 40 billion.

Alibaba, widely regarded as the Amazon of China, began as an online business market, although it began to grow aggressively with the launch of the Taobao market in 2003, which extended to digital media . cloud computing, and a large number of other industries, and it has consolidated as an everyday service provider with the Alipay online payment product. The company also holds a significant stake in the social media platform similar to Weibo's Twitter.

Ma now works as Executive Chairman of Alibaba, having ceded the role of CEO to David Zhang in 2013, and controls Ant Financial, the new Alipay brand and now Alibaba's financial services subsidiary. the NYT reports that Zhang is a likely heir to Ma's duties. Although Ma is one of the first Chinese billionaire businessmen to retire and he does so very young, he is widely revered in China, known as of "Master Ma" and her philanthropic arm, the Jack Ma Foundation focuses on promoting education for members of rural China.

Updated September 8 at 3:15 pm ET: Updated to include a report from the South China Morning Post and statements from Alibaba, which rebuffed The Times report that Ma was going to retire soon. The article and the title have been updated accordingly.