Khazanah, Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund, reaped more than $1bn from investing in Alibaba ahead of the Chinese e-commerce group’s stock market flotation last year, in a sign of how big Asian investors have cashed in on what remains the world’s biggest initial public offering to date.

The disclosure, made by Khazanah as it reported its financial performance for 2014, came as the fund said it would be ramping up investments in the US tech sector, after opening an office in San Francisco in 2013.

Khazanah on Wednesday said it invested a total of $400m in Alibaba in two tranches in a period over two years ahead of last year’s IPO, which amounted to a stake of 0.6 per cent. It sold some shares after the listing, making a profit of more than $1bn, and retains an undisclosed amount of shares.