China's Alibaba embarks on U.S. IPO journey

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Alibaba Holdings Inc will seek to raise $1 billion in what could become the largest technology debut in history, the Chinese e-commerce and payments giant said on Tuesday in a filing for its eagerly anticipated Initial Public Offering.

Alibaba, which powers four-fifths of all online commerce conducted in the world's second-largest economy, becomes the largest Chinese corporation to have sought a home on U.S. exchanges.

Former English schoolteacher and co-founder Jack Ma now owns 8.9 percent of Alibaba. Yahoo Inc and Softbank <9984.T> own 22.6 percent and 34.4 percent of the company, which said on Tuesday it is still deciding between the New York stock exchange and the Nasdaq as a listing venue.

Alibaba's IPO has spurred levels of excitement in Silicon Valley and Wall Street circles unseen since Facebook Inc's record-breaking $16 billion coming-out party in 2012.

It will debut in a stock market where high-flying stocks like Twitter's and Amazon's have in past weeks been brought back to earth, in a selloff that has polarized Wall Street even as it revives doubts about soaring tech-sector valuations.

The proposed IPO size in Tuesday's filing is an estimate for the purpose of calculating exchange registration fees. Analysts expect the company to eventually raise an amount surpassing Facebook's, garnering a market value of more than $160 billion.

Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley and Citigroup will underwrite the IPO.

(Reporting by San Francisco newsroom; Editing by Alden Bentley)