Lei Jun

Founder & CEO, Xiaomi

Est. net worth~$25B (est.)

The founder who won the race to ship and sold out on day one — then ran into the border that caps the story.

Based: Beijing, China
Company: Xiaomi
Known for: Shipping a wide foldable on in-house 3nm silicon two days ahead of Apple.

Mentioned in

Hardware

Xiaomi beat Apple by 48 hours and sold out. Forecasts still hand Apple a quarter of the market.

Xiaomi's first wide foldable landed two days before Apple's event, thinner, cheaper, on its own 3nm silicon, and pre-orders emptied on day one. Then the arithmetic: it stops at China's border.

September 9, 2026 · 3 min read