General Director of Xiaomi Lei Jun speaks at a press conference in August 2023 in Beijing. CEO enjoys star status on Chinese social media.
VCG through Getty Images
Lei Jun, the founder of Chinese technology giant Xiaomi, is now the fifth richest billionaire in China after enterprise shares gathered 250% over the last 12 months. Xiaomi investors are increasingly in the business of LEI electric vehicles.
Lei, 55, now has a fortune of $ 35.3 billion, according to Forbes’ estimates. The entrepreneur, who is the chairman and CEO of Xiaomi ranked in Hong Kong, had a net worth of $ 10.9 billion when Forbes Mati’s wealth for the world’s billionaire list was launched in April 2024. Since the beginning of this year, Xiaomi shares are raised 27.2%, exceeding a 9.1% profit in the Hang Seng Index City standard.
Lei, 55, now has a fortune of $ 35 billion, according to Forbes’ estimates. The entrepreneur, who is the chairman and CEO of Xiaomi ranked in Hong Kong, is richer than ever after the company’s shares gathered 130% in 2024 index.
The rally is partially run by the business of Xiaomi’s intelligent phones, which is selling higher, profitable equipment. Now the world’s third largest smartphone manufacturer in the market share, the company is also benefiting from the growing interest of investors for China’s technology companies after the January Deepseek release of a cost-effective model of it. This has made investors bet on more advances coming out of China, Eric Wen, head of research at Hong Kong’s Blue Lotus Capital councilors, says messages sent through Wechat.
Xiaomi is investing in his model of him to help make the company’s digital assistant Xiao smarter. But the main factor behind its gathering in the stock market is a pink view of the company’s EV business. Despite the firm competition and a ruthless price war, Xiaomi is expected to meet Lei’s target to offer 300,000 vehicles in 2025, which Mogul announced in a January post on the Chinese social media platform Weibo. Last year, the company submitted more than 135,000 cars. In March, Xiaomi introduced his SU7 electric sedan at a starting price of $ 215,900 ($ 30,000), which was slightly cheaper than the starting price of Tesla 3 of 235,500 yuan. Wen i Blue Lotus expects Xiaomi to exceed Lei’s goal and offer 387,000 cars in 2025.
YU7, an electric SUV that is expected to start during the summer, is a direct competitor of Tesla’s model Y, but may be cheap than the start price of the latter of 263,500 Juan, Yale Zhang, a managing director with Center in Shanghai in forecasting the Automobile research firm, says by phone.
In addition to racing Tesla, Xiaomi is grabbing market share from other foreign brands such as Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz in the second largest economy in the world, according to Zhang. Foreign companies are trying to sell to the younger generation of China, who do not like not only Xiaomi -style vehicles, but Lei himself. Mogul enjoys star status on Chinese social media, where he often interacts with users to provide product updates and require product feedback.
“He’s a super seller,” Zhang says. “This is something that other developing automobiles do not have. Plus, the car itself is quite good. It is better than the products from many young and traditional automobiles.”
But Xiaomi shares can now be considered expensive. The shares trade with a price ratio in profits of 53 times in Hong Kong. Chinese online giant Tencent has a multiple peak of 23. Automaker Byd, who crossed Tesla to become the largest manufacturer in the world EV from deliveries in the last quarter of 2024, trades 26 times in Hong Kong profits in Hong Kong .
Investors may like Xiaomi for his potential, Ke Yan, Singapore -based research head in DZT Research, says through Wechat. Some investors see Xiaomi as a technology -related action that offers rapid growth, which justifies its high rating, says KE.
In addition to holding vehicles, Lei said in a social media post in February that he is studying how to strengthen production. Last year, some customers had to wait up to eight months to get cars when the demand exceeded the supply.
Lei’s messages are likely to cheer investors by suggesting an expanded and strengthened supply chain, analysts say. Wen i Blue Lotus expects the EV unit of Xiaomi to start generating a profit in 2026.
Currently making losses, EV sales accounted for 10.5% of the company’s total revenue in the third quarter of 2024, the latest financial results available. Xiaomi without sales increased 30.5% from year to year to 92.5 billion yuan during that period, while its net profit increased by 4.4% to 6.3 billion yuan.
“The pricing of Xiaomi’s action is very high but I don’t think it has reached its peak,” Wen says. “The company’s competitive position in the smartphone market has improved, but EV is really the main reason.”