Lei Jun

Lei Jun was born in 1969 in Xiantao, Hubei Province, China. He studied computer science at Wuhan University, graduating in 1991 with a degree he completed in two years instead of the standard four. He joined Kingsoft, a Chinese software company, in 1992 and rose to become CEO by 1998, ultimately taking the company public on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2007. Prior to founding Xiaomi, Lei Jun made several influential angel investments in Chinese internet companies including JD.com, UCWeb, and YY.com that generated substantial personal wealth and deep insight into Chinese consumer internet market dynamics.

Lei Jun is the founder, chairman, and CEO of Xiaomi Corporation, which he established in April 2010 alongside seven co-founders after stepping down from Kingsoft. At Xiaomi, Lei Jun has served as the driving philosophical and commercial force behind the company's hardware-at-cost, software-monetization model. He is known in China for his public persona as an accessible, consumer-oriented entrepreneur—a contrast to the more formal executive styles common in Chinese technology leadership. Lei Jun personally led the announcement presentation for the Xiaomi SU7 electric vehicle in December 2023, delivering a performance widely compared to Steve Jobs-era Apple keynotes. In 2024, Forbes estimated his net worth at approximately 8.5 billion US dollars, attributable primarily to his Xiaomi equity stake. He remains deeply involved in product development decisions across all major Xiaomi categories.