Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu takes a selfie with chairman of Alibaba, Jack Ma, during a meeting with leaders of large corporations in China, during Netanyahu’s visit to China on March 20, 2017. Photo: Haim Zach/GPO.

JNS.org – Joseph Tsai, the Taiwanese-Canadian billionaire co-founder of the Alibaba company, is in Israel for the first time on a 10-day visit.

While Tsai will reportedly meet with Israel business leaders while in country, his arrival is due to his avid love for the sport of lacrosse, as the 2018 World Lacrosse Championship takes place in the coastal city of Netanya. Tsai is the owner of the San Diego Seals lacrosse team and played lacrosse for Yale as a student. He is now involved in lacrosse’s international governing body.

Tsai’s trip comes just three months after Alibaba executive chairman Jack Ma’s visit to Israel, where he met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli tech pioneers.

Alibaba is worth $500 billion and employs 50,000 workers. Last year, the company acquired the assets of Israel-based QR codes startup Visualead Ltd. It has also invested in Israel’s Infinity Augmented Reality, augmented-reality hardware company Lumus, auto-computer vision startup Nexar, and the e-commerce search engine Twiggle.