Xiaomi

Lei Jun founded Xiaomi in April 2010 after selling his previous company UCWeb to Alibaba. Lei had studied Steve Jobs intensively — his presentation style, product philosophy, and retail strategy. Xiaomi's first product was MIUI, a custom version of Android. Lei recruited engineers from Google, Microsoft, and Motorola with an unusual pitch: no salary for the first year, equity instead. All accepted. Lei later said that founding Xiaomi at age 40 was terrifying. He did it anyway.

Xiaomi launched its first smartphone in August 2011 at ¥1,999 — approximately $300 — with specifications that matched phones costing twice as much. The initial 100,000 units sold out in three minutes online. Xiaomi's business model inverted the conventional smartphone industry: sell hardware at cost or below, make money on software, services, and accessories. Samsung and Apple's Chinese market shares began declining almost immediately.

Xiaomi went public on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in July 2018. By this point, the company sold over 200 categories of products through its ecosystem — from smartphones and laptops to rice cookers, air purifiers, electric scooters, and running shoes — all connected through the Xiaomi smart home platform. The company described itself not as a hardware company but as an internet company that happened to make hardware.

Xiaomi announced its entry into the electric vehicle market in March 2021, with Lei Jun personally committing to lead the project. The Xiaomi SU7 electric sedan launched in March 2024 to extraordinary demand — 88,898 orders in the first 24 hours. Apple had spent a decade trying and failing to build a car. Xiaomi did it in three years. By November 2025 — just 19 months after the first delivery — Xiaomi had delivered 500,000 vehicles. The EV business became profitable in Q3 2025, generating a 25.5% gross margin.

Xiaomi reported full-year 2025 revenues of 457.3 billion yuan — up 25% — with adjusted net profit of 39.2 billion yuan, up 43.8%. The SU7 sedan ranked as China's best-selling sedan priced above 200,000 yuan in 2025. The YU7 SUV, launched in June 2025, led the mid-to-large SUV segment for seven consecutive months. The updated SU7 generated over 15,000 confirmed orders within 34 minutes of launch in March 2026. The company that had been dismissed as a cheap Apple knockoff had outsold Ford and GM combined in EVs in 2024 and was preparing to launch international sales in Europe in 2027.