"We’ve invested a lot in this space and we’re going to invest more," Ma said on Monday evening referring Alibaba’s recent launch of a stateside ecommerce site. "If I come to USA, I want to thank USA. I got my inspirations from Silicon Valley… It’s our time to come here and invest in Silicon Valley."

Ma indicated the company will continue to make similar investments stateside. “It’s just a start,” Ma said of the ecommerce site.

When Ma was asked about if he’s interested in acquiring eBay or PayPal, he demurred. He also said he was “very interested” in a partnership between Alipay online payments service and Apple Pay.