Lei Jun (born 16 December 1969) is a Chinese

billionaire A billionaire is a person with a net worth of at least 1,000,000,000, one billion units of a given currency, usually of a major currency such as the United States dollar, euro, or pound sterling. It is a sub-category of the concept of the ultr ...

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 ...

computer engineer Computer engineering (CE, CoE, or CpE) is a branch of engineering specialized in developing computer hardware and software. It integrates several fields of electrical engineering, electronics engineering and computer science. Computer engine ...

, and nonpartisan congressman. He is known for being the founder, chairman, and CEO of the consumer electronics company

Xiaomi Xiaomi (; ) is a Chinese multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Beijing, China. It is best known for consumer electronics software electric vehicles. It is the second-largest manufacturer of smartphones in the worl ...

. He also serves as the chairman of

Kingsoft Kingsoft Corporation () is a Chinese software company based in Beijing. Kingsoft operates four subsidiaries: Seasun for video game development, Cheetah Mobile for mobile internet apps, Kingsoft Cloud for cloud storage platforms, and Kingsoft O ...

and Shunwei Capital. Lei has been serving as congressman of the

National People's Congress The National People's Congress (NPC) is the highest organ of state power of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The NPC is the only branch of government in China, and per the principle of unified power, all state organs from the Sta ...

since 2013. As of May 2025, Lei's net worth was estimated at US$42.6 billion by ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

'', ranking him 33rd worldwide.

Early life and education

Lei was born on 16 December 1969 in the city of Xiantao,

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 ...

, China. Both of his parents were teachers; his father made $7 a 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 in his village using two batteries, a bulb, a self-made wooden box, and some wires. In 1987, he graduated from Hubei Provincial Mianyang High School () and started to attend

Wuhan University Wuhan University (WHU; 武汉大学) is a key comprehensive public university in Wuhan, Hubei, China. It is directly affiliated with and funded by the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, Ministry of Education of China. The un ...

. He graduated from Wuhan University and received a Bachelor of Engineering degree with a major in Computer Science in 1991.

Career

In 1992, Lei joined

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 investm ...

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. It is one of the largest stock exchanges in Asia and the List of major stock exchanges, 9th largest globally by market ...

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, he 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 share capital, stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter (finance), over-the-counter markets. A public (publicly traded) co ...

via an

in 2012. In 2008, he became a chairman of UCWeb. In 2010, Lei founded Xiaomi with multiple partners, including former Google executive Lin Bin. In 2011, he co-founded Shunwei Capital (), an investment company, via which he invests in companies in the e-commerce,

social networking A social network is a social structure consisting of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), networks of Dyad (sociology), dyadic ties, and other Social relation, social interactions between actors. The social network per ...

, and mobile industries. Also in 7 July 2011, he rejoined Kingsoft as chairman. 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. 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. 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. In 2020, Xiaomi fully entered the high-end smartphone market by launching the Xiaomi 10 series, signaling a brand shift toward “technology and quality.” 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. In March 2024, Xiaomi’s first electric vehicle, the Xiaomi SU7, was officially unveiled. 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.

Politics

Lei Jun is a nonpartisan person. He was elected to serve congressman of the 12th National People's Congress for the Guangdong congressional district in 2013. He was elected to serve as congressman of the 13th National People's Congress for the Beijing congressional district in 2018. He was re-elected to serve as congressman of the

14th National People's Congress The 14th National People's Congress (NPC) is the sitting electoral term of the "supreme organ of state power" of the China, People's Republic of China. It convened in Beijing, on 5 March 2023, and is scheduled to continue until March 2028. Electio ...

for the Beijing congressional district in 2023.

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 for the renovation of schools and

mudbrick Mudbrick or mud-brick, also known as unfired brick, is an air-dried brick, made of a mixture of mud (containing loam, clay, sand and water) mixed with a binding material such as rice husks or straw. Mudbricks are known from 9000 BCE. From ...

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 Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neuron disease (MND) or—in the United States—Lou Gehrig's disease (LGD), is a rare, Terminal illness, terminal neurodegenerative disease, neurodegenerative disorder that results i ...

. In 2021, he donated over $2.2 billion worth of Xiaomi shares to charity. In 2023, Lei Jun donated 1.3 billion yuan to

, the largest individual donation the university has ever received.

Personal life

Lei and his wife Zhang Tong (张彤) have two children.

Awards and recognition

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

''. In 2015, he was named to the

Time 100 ''Time'' 100 is a list of the top 100 most influential people, assembled by the American news magazine ''Time''. First published in 1999 as the result of a debate among American academics, politicians, and journalists, the list is now a highly ...

. In 2019, Lei was recognized as an "Outstanding Builder of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics" (). The recognition was used by the

United States Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD, or DOD) is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government charged with coordinating and superv ...

as one of the reasons to add Xiaomi Corporation to a list of companies that support China's military in January 2021. 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.

References

External links

Lei Jun's Weibo Page

Lei Jun's TikTok Page

Lei Jun's Douyin 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