Lei Jun (born 16 December 1969) is a Chinese

billionaire A billionaire is a person with a net worth of at least one billion (1,000,000,000, i.e., a thousand million) units of a given currency, usually of a major currency such as the United States dollar, euro, or pound sterling. The American busi ...

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values t ...

and

philanthropist Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives, for the public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private good, focusing on material ...

. He is known for founding the consumer electronics company

Xiaomi Corporation (; ), commonly known as Xiaomi and registered as Xiaomi Inc., is a Chinese designer and manufacturer of consumer electronics and related software, home appliances, and household items. Behind Samsung, it is the second largest ...

. As of October 2022, Lei Jun's net worth was estimated at either US$8.1 billion according to the ''

Bloomberg Billionaires Index The ''Bloomberg Billionaires Index'', launched in March 2012, is a daily ranking of the world's 500 richest people based on their net worth. It draws information from "action in the stock market, economic indicators and news reports", features a p ...

'', making him the 203rd richest person in the world, or at $7.5 billion by ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...

'', ranking him 265th worldwide.

Biography

Lei Jun was born on 7 December 1969 in

Xiantao Xiantao () is a sub-prefecture-level city in the east of Hubei province, China. Located at the Jianghan Plain in the middle of Hubei province and spanning 112°55' – 113°49' east longitude and 30°04' – 30°32' north latitude, Xiantao City c ...

, in the underdeveloped countryside of

Hubei Hubei (; ; alternately Hupeh) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, and is part of the Central China region. The name of the province means "north of the lake", referring to its position north of Dongting Lake. The p ...

. Both of his parents were teachers, which was a disgraced profession after the

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated goa ...

; his father made $7 per month. As a child, he was interested in electronics and liked disassembling and re-assembling radios, which was encouraged by his father. He made the first

electric lamp An electric light, lamp, or light bulb is an electrical component that produces light. It is the most common form of artificial lighting. Lamps usually have a base made of ceramic, metal, glass, or plastic, which secures the lamp in the soc ...

in his village using two batteries, a bulb, a self-made wooden box, and some wires. In 1987, he graduated from

Mianyang Mianyang (; formerly known as Mienchow) is the second largest prefecture-level city of Sichuan province in Southwest China. Located in north-central Sichuan covering an area of consisting of Jiangyou, a county-level city, five counties, and thr ...

Middle School (; now Xiantao Middle School) and began attending

Wuhan University Wuhan University (WHU; ) is a public research university in Wuhan, Hubei. The university is sponsored by the Ministry of Education. Wuhan university was founded as one of the four elite universities in the early republican period of China and ...

, from where he graduated with a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to Applied science, practical discipli ...

in 1991. During his last year of college, he founded his first company, Gundugoms. He also studied profusely and excelled at school. 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 An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investme ...

on the

Hong Kong Stock Exchange The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong (SEHK, also known as Hong Kong Stock Exchange) is a stock exchange based in Hong Kong. As of the end of 2020, it has 2,538 listed companies with a combined market capitalization of HK$47 trillion. It is rep ...

in 2007. On 20 December 2007, he resigned as president and CEO of Kingsoft for "health reasons". In 2000, Lei founded Joyo.com, an online bookstore, which he sold for US$75 million to Amazon.com in 2004. In 2005, Lei made a $1 million investment in YY; those shares were worth $129 million when the company became a

public company A public company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter markets. A public (publicly traded) company can be listed on a stock exchange ( ...

via an

in 2012. In 2008, he became a chairman of UCWeb. In 2010, Lei Jun founded

, a technology company that manufactures smartphones, mobile apps, and other consumer electronics. In 2011, he co-founded

Shunwei Capital Shunwei Capital () is a Beijing-based venture capital firm founded in 2011. It was founded by Lei Jun (the founder and CEO of Xiaomi) and Tuck Lye Koh. The firm focuses on investing in the technology sector in China as well as other countries suc ...

(), an investment company, via which he invests in companies in the e-commerce,

social networking A social network is a social structure made up of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), sets of dyadic ties, and other social interactions between actors. The social network perspective provides a set of methods for ...

, and mobile industries. In 2011, he rejoined Kingsoft as chairman. In 2013, Lei Jun was appointed a delegate of the

National People's Congress The National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China (NPC; ), or simply the National People's Congress, is constitutionally the supreme state authority and the national legislature of the People's Republic of China. With 2,9 ...

Awards and recognition

In 2014, Lei was named Businessman of the Year by ''

''. In 2015, Lei was named to the

Time 100 ''Time'' 100 (often stylized as ''TIME'' 100) is an annual listicle of the 100 most influential people in the world, assembled by the American news magazine ''Time''. First published in 1999 as the result of a debate among American academics, p ...

. In 2019, Lei was recognized as an "Outstanding Builder of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics".

Personal life

They have two children. As of 2016, he spoke very little of the

English language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the ...

and spoke to the media via a translator.

Philanthropy

By 2017, Lei had donated $1 billion to charity, starting with a ¥140,000 donation in 1997 to his alma mater,

. He later made donations to Zhuhai Charity, an organization that funds schools for migrants, the villagers of

Yangchun Yangchun, alternately romanized as Yeungchun, is a county-level city in southwestern Guangdong, China, administered as a part of the prefecture-level city of Yangjiang. Yangchun has an area of and had approximately 1.05 million inhabitants in ...

for the renovation of schools and

mudbrick A mudbrick or mud-brick is an air-dried brick, made of a mixture of loam, mud, sand and water mixed with a binding material such as rice husks or straw. Mudbricks are known from 9000 BCE, though since 4000 BCE, bricks have also been ...

houses anof cultural buildings, the victims of the 2013 Lushan earthquake, and was a participant in the

Ice Bucket Challenge The Ice Bucket Challenge, sometimes called the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, is an activity involving the pouring of a bucket of ice water over a person's head, either by another person or self-administered, to promote awareness of the disease amyo ...

to raise funds for

amyotrophic lateral sclerosis Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neuron disease (MND) or Lou Gehrig's disease, is a neurodegenerative disease that results in the progressive loss of motor neurons that control voluntary muscles. ALS is the most commo ...

. In 2021, he donated over $2.2 billion worth of Xiaomi shares to charity.

References

External links

Lei Jun's Weibo Page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lei, Jun 1969 births Asia Game Changer Award winners Businesspeople from Hubei Chinese billionaires Chinese technology company founders Delegates to the 12th National People's Congress Delegates to the 13th National People's Congress Living people People from Xiantao Wuhan University alumni Xiaomi people