He Xiaopeng (; born 3November 1977) is a Chinese

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value in ways that generally entail beyond the minimal amount of risk (assumed by a traditional business), and potentially involving values besides simply economic ones. An entreprene ...

, best known for co-founding companies including XPeng Motors, an intelligent electric vehicle manufacturer, and UCWeb, the Chinese mobile Internet software and service provider he co-founded in 2004. UCWeb was acquired by

Alibaba Group Alibaba Group Holding Limited, branded as Alibaba (), is a Chinese Multinational corporation, multinational technology company specializing in E-commerce in China, e-commerce, retail, Internet, and technology. Founded on 28 June 1999 in Hangzho ...

in June 2014 in the largest merger and acquisition deal ever in the Chinese internet industry. After acquisition, he was named as president of UCWeb and president of the Alibaba Mobile Business Group, and later served as the president of Tudou & Ali Games. On 22 August 2017, Xiaopeng left Alibaba and officially joined XPeng Motors on 29 August as chairman of the startup.

Early life and education

Born in

Huangshi Huangshi ( zh, s= , t= , p=Huángshí), alternatively romanized as Hwangshih, is a prefecture-level city in southeastern Hubei province, People's Republic of China. Its population was 2,469,079 inhabitants at the 2020 census; 1,567,108 of whom ...

Hubei Hubei is a province of China, province in Central China. It has the List of Chinese provincial-level divisions by GDP, seventh-largest economy among Chinese provinces, the second-largest within Central China, and the third-largest among inland ...

, where he spent his childhood. He graduated from the

South China University of Technology The South China University of Technology (SCUT) is a public university in Guangzhou, Guangdong, China. It is affiliated with the Ministry of Education (China), Ministry of Education and co-sponsored with the Guangdong Provincial People's Governme ...

with a bachelor's degree in computer science.

Career

Early career

He worked at AsiaInfo Technologies in various roles including technology manager, testing manager and project manager after graduation in his early career.

UCWeb: 2004–2017

He co-founded UCWeb with Liang Jie in 2004 overseeing the company product strategy and R&D efforts. In June 2014, UCWeb was acquired by e-commerce giant Alibaba Group for $4.3 billion making He Xiaopeng a billionaire. From 2014 to August 2017, Xiaopeng served as senior executive of Alibaba Mobile Business Division. On 22 August 2017, Xiaopeng officially announced his resignation from all his positions in Alibaba to start a new adventure and lead startup XPeng Motors.

XPeng Motors: 2017–present

In 2014, He Xiaopeng supported Xia Heng and He Tao in the foundation of XPeng Motors, an electric self-driving vehicle automobile company. The company received initial investments from Li Xueling, Fu Sheng, Wu Xiaoguang, Zhang Ying, and other investors to work on

autonomous driving Vehicular automation is using technology to assist or replace the operator of a vehicle such as a car, truck, aircraft, rocket, military vehicle, or boat. Assisted vehicles are ''semi-autonomous'', whereas vehicles that can travel without a ...

engineering and machine learning. XPeng's stated goal was to manufacture networked cars in China with capabilities like

electrification Electrification is the process of powering by electricity and, in many contexts, the introduction of such power by changing over from an earlier power source. In the context of history of technology and economic development, electrification refe ...

, intelligence, networking and autonomous driving. In September 2016, XPeng Motors released the beta version of its prototype G3 intelligent electric mini-SUV in Beijing. The car received positive reviews for its design, performance and technology. He became full-time chairman of XPeng in August 2017. XPeng Motors currently manufactures its G3 intelligent electric SUV in China, and distributes and supports its vehicles through a chain of retail and service centers across the country. The company's P7 intelligent electric sports coupe model is scheduled to come to market in the spring of 2020.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:He, Xiaopeng 1977 births Living people 21st-century Chinese businesspeople Alibaba Group people Businesspeople from Hubei Chinese founders of automobile manufacturers People from Huangshi South China University of Technology alumni XPeng people