Lei Jun

The founder of Xiaomi—the world’s third-largest phonemaker—has long credited Steve Jobs as a role model. But Lei Jun has now achieved something that Apple never did: produced an electric car. Released in late March, the SU7—endorsed by Ford CEO Jim Farley—sold more than 70,000 units within a month of its launch, according to the company. Xiaomi, better known for its smartphones, expects total EV deliveries to exceed 100,000 by November. Lei credits Xiaomi’s brief inclusion on a U.S. trade blacklist in 2021 for inspiring his pivot to cars. Why did Xiaomi succeed where Apple failed? Lei devoted 10 billion yuan ($1.42 billion) and 3,400 engineers to make the first prototype.