(Reuters) -Billionaire investor Ryan Cohen has grown his personal stake in Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group ( BABA ) to roughly $1 billion in recent months, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.

Cohen's position represents about 7 million shares, the report said.

Alibaba ( BABA ) and Cohen did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment.

Cohen had built a stake in Alibaba ( BABA ) worth hundreds of millions of dollars in early 2023 and was pushing the company to increase and speed up share buybacks, sources had then told Reuters.

Chinese tech stocks have been on the ascent in recent days, after the emergence of domestic artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek. A meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and business leaders in the sector also boosted investor sentiment.

Alibaba ( BABA ) earlier on Thursday flagged plans to invest more in its e-commerce and AI-powered cloud computing businesses and reported third-quarter revenue above analysts' estimate on the back of strong year-end sales.