Xiaomi Corporation

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 a small team of 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.

By 2014, Xiaomi had become the most valuable technology startup in the world, valued at $46 billion — surpassing Uber at the time. The company had expanded beyond smartphones into televisions, tablets, laptops, and a rapidly expanding ecosystem of smart home products. Lei Jun had hired Hugo Barra away from Google to lead Xiaomi's international expansion. The company that had been dismissed as a cheap Apple knockoff had become a global technology platform.

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 ecosystem strategy meant that every Xiaomi product sold reinforced demand for every other Xiaomi product. 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 announcement was unusual: most technology companies entering automotive had decades of industrial manufacturing experience. Xiaomi had none. The Xiaomi SU7 electric sedan launched in China in 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.