As of May 2025,Lei's net worth was estimated at US$42.6 billion by Forbes,ranking him 33rd worldwide.[2]
Early life and education
Lei was born on 16 December 1969 in the city of Xiantao,Hubei,China.[3] Both of his parents were teachers;[4] his father made $7 a month.[5] As a child,he was interested in electronics and liked disassembling and re-assembling radios,which was encouraged by his father.[6] He made the first electric lamp in his village using two batteries,a bulb,a self-made wooden box,and some wires.[7]
In 1987,he graduated from Hubei Provincial Mianyang High School (湖北省沔阳中学) and started to attend Wuhan University. He graduated from Wuhan University and received a Bachelor of Science degree with a major in Computer Science in 1991.[1]
Career
In 1992,Lei joined Kingsoft as an engineer. He became the CEO of the company in 1998 and led it towards an initial public offering on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2007. On 20 December 2007,he resigned as president and CEO of Kingsoft for "health reasons".[8]
In 2000,Lei founded joyo.com,an online retailing platform,[9] which he sold for US$75 million to Amazon.com in 2004.[10] In 2005,he made a $1 million investment in YY;those shares were worth $129 million when the company became a public company via an initial public offering in 2012.[11] In 2008,he became a chairman of UCWeb.[12]
In 2010,Lei founded Xiaomi with multiple partners,including former Google executive Lin Bin.[13]
In 2011,he co-founded Shunwei Capital (Chinese:顺为资本),an investment company,via which he invests in companies in the e-commerce,social networking,and mobile industries.[14] Also in 7 July 2011,he rejoined Kingsoft as chairman.[8]
In 2012,Lei Jun was elected as a deputy to the Beijing Municipal People’s Congress. In 2013,he was elected as a delegate to the 12th National People’s Congress representing Guangdong Province.
On December 26,2013,he founded “Beijing Xiaomi Payment Technology Co.,Ltd.”with a registered capital of 50 million RMB. Lei Jun served as the company’s legal representative and chairman.
[15]On February 24,2018,he was elected as a deputy to the 13th National People’s Congress.
On June 21,2018,Lei Jun,along with Xiaomi’s core executives,began the IPO roadshow in Hong Kong. Xiaomi’s stock code was 01810.HK. According to the prospectus,Xiaomi planned to issue 2.18 billion shares with a pricing range between 17 and 22 HKD per share,aiming to raise up to 6.1 billion USD. The authorized share capital had a total nominal value of 675,000 USD,consisting of 70 billion Class A shares and 200 billion Class B shares. Based on this,Xiaomi’s adjusted market value was estimated between 53.9 and 69.7 billion USD.[16]
On the morning of July 9,2018,at 9:30 AM,Lei Jun rang the gong for Xiaomi’s listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange,officially bringing the eight-year-old company to the capital market. Xiaomi became the first company listed under the “weighted voting rights”structure on the exchange,prompting the HKEX to specially commission a new copper gong for the occasion.
In 2019,Xiaomi was named a Fortune Global 500 company,becoming the youngest company on the list at the time.[17]
In 2020,Xiaomi fully entered the high-end smartphone market by launching the Xiaomi 10 series,signaling a brand shift toward “technology and quality.”[18]
In March 2021,Lei Jun officially announced Xiaomi’s entry into the smart electric vehicle industry. He personally took charge of the project and planned to invest 10 billion USD over the next decade.[19]
In March 2024,Xiaomi’s first electric vehicle,the Xiaomi SU7,was officially unveiled. [20]The model,focused on high performance and smart features,drew widespread attention,with Lei Jun personally hosting the launch event. The first batch of models received strong market response,with pre-orders exceeding 100,000,marking a successful initial step in Lei Jun’s automotive strategy.[21]
By 2017,Lei had donated $1 billion to charity,starting with a ¥140,000 donation in 1997 to his alma mater,Wuhan University. He later made donations to Zhuhai Charity,an organization that funds schools for migrants,the villagers of Yangchun for the renovation of schools and mudbrick houses and construction of cultural buildings,the victims of the 2013 Lushan earthquake,and was a participant in the Ice Bucket Challenge to raise funds for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.[25] In 2021,he donated over $2.2 billion worth of Xiaomi shares to charity.[26]
In 2023,Lei Jun donated 1.3 billion yuan to Wuhan University,the largest individual donation the university has ever received.[27][28]
Personal life
Lei and his wife Zhang Tong (张彤) have two children.[2]
Awards and recognition
In 2014,Lei was named Businessman of the Year by Forbes.[29] In 2015,he was named to the Time 100.[30]
In 2019,Lei was recognized as an "Outstanding Builder of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics" (Chinese:优秀中国特色社会主义事业建设者). The recognition was used by the United States Department of Defense as one of the reasons to add Xiaomi Corporation to a list of companies that support China's military in January 2021.[31] Later,the blacklisting of Xiaomi was blocked by a United States federal court and was removed by the United States Department of Defense after an agreement with Xiaomi was reached.[32][33]
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