Lei Jun

Founder

Birthday December 16, 1969

Birth Sign Sagittarius

Birthplace Xiantao, Hubei, China

Age 54 years old

Nationality China

#43126 Most Popular

1969

Lei Jun (born 16 December 1969) is a Chinese billionaire entrepreneur and philanthropist.

He is known for founding the consumer electronics company Xiaomi.

As of October 2022, Lei's net worth was estimated at either US$8.1 billion according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, making him the 203rd richest person in the world, or at $7.5 billion by Forbes, ranking him 265th worldwide.

Lei was born on 7 December 1969 in Xiantao, in the underdeveloped countryside of Hubei.

Both of his parents were teachers, which was a disgraced profession after the Cultural Revolution; his father made $7 per 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.

1987

In 1987, he graduated from Mianyang Middle School (沔阳中学; now Xiantao Middle School) and began attending Wuhan University, from where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in computer science in 1991.

During his last year of college, he founded his first company, Gundugoms.

He also studied profusely and excelled at school.

1992

In 1992, Lei joined Kingsoft as an engineer.

1998

He became the CEO of the company in 1998 and led it towards an initial public offering on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2007.

2000

In 2000, Lei founded Joyo.com, an online bookstore, which he sold for US$75 million to Amazon.com in 2004.

2005

In 2005, he made a $1 million investment in YY; those shares were worth $129 million when the company became a public company via an initial public offering in 2012.

2007

On 20 December 2007, he resigned as president and CEO of Kingsoft for "health reasons".

2008

In 2008, he became a chairman of UCWeb.

2010

In 2010, Lei founded Xiaomi with multiple partners, including former Google executive Lin Bin.

In 2023, Lei was among thirteen Xiaomi officials listed on the National Agency on Corruption Prevention's list of International Sponsors of War for maintaining business in Russia after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

2011

In 2011, he co-founded Shunwei Capital, an investment company, via which he invests in companies in the e-commerce, social networking, and mobile industries.

Also in 2011, he rejoined Kingsoft as chairman.

Lei and his wife Zhang Tong have two children.

2013

In 2013, Lei was appointed a delegate of the National People's Congress.

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 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.

In 2021, he donated over $2.2 billion worth of Xiaomi shares to charity.

In 2023, Lei Jun in the 130th anniversary of Wuhan University, completed a personal donation of 1.3 billion yuan, for the university up to now the largest individual donation.

2014

In 2014, Lei was named Businessman of the Year by Forbes.

2015

In 2015, he was named to the Time 100.

2016

As of 2016, he spoke very little English and spoke to the media via a translator.

2017

By 2017, Lei had donated $1 billion to charity, starting with a ¥140,000 donation in 1997 to his alma mater, Wuhan University.

2019

In 2019, Lei was recognized as an "Outstanding Builder of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics", which caused the United States Department of Defense to add Xiaomi to a list of companies that support China’s military in January 2021.