Who owns Xiaomi: a complete analysis of the owners, shareholders and brand structure

When you buy a Xiaomi smartphone, a Mi Band smartwatch or a Mi Router router, you hardly think about who really stands behind the brand. Meanwhile, Xiaomi’s ownership story is a fascinating saga about a startup that has grown into a global giant in 10 years, outselling monsters like Apple and Samsung in selected regions. But who owns the company today? Who makes key decisions, and how does it affect pricing, innovation, and even what models get into the Russian market?

In this article, we will discuss in detail:

• 🔹 Who founded Xiaomi and how a small Chinese company became the world’s fourth-largest smartphone maker
• 🔹 Current Shareholder Structure: Who Owns the Biggest Shares and How That Changed After IPO 2018
• 🔹 The role of Lei Jun – the charismatic CEO, He is often referred to as the “Chinese Steve Jobs"
• 🔹 Chinese Government Influence: Myths and Realities About State Control of the Brand
• 🔹 How the change of ownership affects products: why some models do not come out in Europe and prices are rising

You'd be surprised to learn that the brand's apparent "nationality" is not just Chinese investors, but also global funds, and decisions about new devices are sometimes made under pressure from political rather than market factors.

1.The founders of Xiaomi: how it all started

Xiaomi’s story began in 2010 when a group of Chinese entrepreneurs led by Lei Jun decided to challenge Apple and Samsung, and the idea was simple: create smartphones with flagship specs, but at a price of 2-3 times lower than competitors. The first product was the Xiaomi Mi 1, released in 2011 – and it immediately became a hit in China.

Key figures at the start:

• 👤 Lei Jun — CEO And the face of the company, a former top manager of Kingsoft (Chinese equivalent of Microsoft Office), he formulated the philosophy of the brand: "Innovation for all".
• 👤 Lin Binh, president of the company responsible for software development, before Xiaomi worked at Google China and Microsoft.
• 👤 Hun Feng is a co-founder, hardware specialist, formerly a development officer at Motorola.
• 👤 Li Wangqiang is a marketing expert who came from Dell.

Fun fact: Xiaomi's name translates to "messo," a humble cereal that everyone in China eats, from the poor to the rich, reflecting the brand's ambition to be accessible to everyone"MI" The inside of the square symbolizes infinite possibilities (Mission Impossible, or “mission impossible”), which the team undertook to complete).

⚠️ Despite the “popular” image, Xiaomi was funded not by small investors, but by large funds, including Qualcomm, Morningside Group and the company. IDG Capital.This allowed the company to quickly increase production capacity.

Xiaomi's ownership structure in 2026: who owns the shares

After a successful IPO on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in July 2018 (the company attracted the $4.7 billion in the assessment of $Xiaomi’s shareholder structure has changed significantly, now a publicly traded company, but the majority of the shareholders and key investors remain.

Major shareholders for 2026 (data from the latest Hong Kong Stock Exchange report):

Key point: Lei Jun controls the majority of voting shares (57.1 percent) through Smart Mobile Holding, which allows him to make final decisions even with only 13.3 percent of the capital, a common practice for Chinese tech companies, where founders retain control despite public offerings.

After IPO The company has pledged not to sell the founders’ shares for 3 years, but since 2021, Lei Jun has gradually reduced its stake from 31% to the current 13.3:

• 📉 Diversification of Risks: Reducing Dependence on a Single Shareholder.
• 💰 Attracting new investors to develop IoT and electric vehicles.
• 🏛️ Regulatory requirements (in China, large tech companies are subject to antitrust pressure).

3.The role of Lei Jun: why he is called "China's Steve Jobs"

Lei Jun is not easy. CEO, It's a brand symbol, and its presentations of new devices are getting millions of views, and the phrase, "Are you." OK?" (The one he said at the first Mi 1 presentation became a meme on the Chinese Internet?

5 key achievements of Lei Jun:

1. The Three Iron Principles Strategy": 📱 Hardware - only premium components at low prices. 🤖 Software — MIUI As an alternative to Android with unique chips. 🛒 Direct Selling – Removing Intermediaries to Cut Prices.

Device ecosystem

Xiaomi

400 smart devices

Expansion to global markets

diadiadia

Europe

Latin America

Investing in startups

Shunwei Capital

300+ draft

Meituan

Uber Eats

Zhihu

Quora

Electric cars

Xiaomi EV

Xiaomi SU7

But Lei Jun has critics, and he's accused of:

• 🔄 Frequent departures and returns: He temporarily resigned in 2019 CEO, But he came back a year later because of the stock drop.
• 📉 Exaggerated promises: for example, promised to make Xiaomi №1 in the world by 2026, but the company has remained in 4th place.
• 🇨🇳 Relations with the Chinese government (more on this in the next section).

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If you’re following Xiaomi’s news, look at Lei Jun’s speeches at Xiaomi Investor Day, where he announces key strategic changes that will then affect products (e.g., switching to HyperOS instead of HyperOS). MIUI).

4.The Chinese Government Influence: Myths and Realities

One of the most controversial issues is how much Xiaomi depends on Chinese authorities, and in 2020-2023, the company was repeatedly caught in the middle of scandals:

• 🚨 U.S. sanctions: Xiaomi was blacklisted by the Pentagon in 2021 as a “company associated with the Chinese army” and later overturned by a court, but reputational damage was done.
• 🔍 Espionage charges: Lithuania banned Xiaomi smartphones in 2022 due to built-in censorship (blocking the words “Taiwan”, “Tibet”, “Dalai Lama").
• 📵 Previous articleIndia and the United States, some Xiaomi models were excluded from tenders due to “security risks".

But how well-founded are these accusations?

The “Approach” for the dependence on the government:

• 🏛️ The National Security Act (2015) requires Chinese companies to cooperate with government agencies on request.
• 💼 Shareholders with state ties: among investors Xiaomi – funds affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party.
• 📡 Censorship in MIUI: Chinese firmware blocks "undesirable" websites and keywords.

The arguments "Against":

• 🌍 Xiaomi is actively developing markets outside of China (40% of revenue from abroad).
• 📱 Open source: MIUI It is based on Android and has open source for international versions.
• 💰 Independent funding: after IPO The company is less dependent on government subsidies.

⚠️ Note: If you buy a Xiaomi smartphone to work with sensitive data, pay attention to regional firmware (MIUI Global) undergoing compliance audit GDPR, while Chinese (MIUI China) contains built-in restrictions.

5. How the change of ownership affects Xiaomi products

Since 2018, after going public, Xiaomi has become more profit-oriented, which has affected:

Prices:

• 📈 The growth of the cost of flagships: if in 2015 Mi 5 cost ~$300, then Xiaomi 14 Ultra (2026) costs in $1500+.
• 💸 The cost of the budget lines: Redmi and POCO It is even more accessible by simplifying the.

Assortment:

• 🌐 Localization by region: for example, in India sold unique models Redmi Note India, and in Europe – smartphones with support 5G ranged n78.
• ❌ Refusal of some devices: after US sanctions, Xiaomi stopped supplying smart Mi speakers to Russia AI Speaker due to Qualcomm chip restrictions.

Innovation:

• 🚗 Electric cars: investments in Xiaomi EV The company has diverted resources from the development of smartphones (in 2023, the company reduced the budget for mobile innovation by 15 years%).
• 🤖 AI and HyperOS: A New Operating System (Replacement) MIUI) It took 3 years to develop and required $1 billion dollars.

In 2022, Xiaomi abandoned the production of TVs OLED in Europe due to low profitability, focusing on more expensive QLED-This decision was made after reviewing shareholder reports of falling margins in the Smart segment. TV.

The fall in the share of smartphones in total revenue (now) ~60%)|Leaving key managers (e.g., heads of state) POCO 2022)|Closing directions (like Mi Max or Mi Note)|A sharp change in pricing policy (for example, the rise in price of Redmi by 20% per year)-->

6.The future of Xiaomi: what to expect from the brand in 2026-2026

Xiaomi has three key priorities for the next two years:

1. Electric cars: Xiaomi's first sedan SU7 already issued (price from $30,000), but the main goal is to increase production to 100,000 cars a year, and to do this, the company is building a plant in Beijing and looking for partners in Europe.
2. HyperOS: The new OS should integrate all Xiaomi devices (from light bulbs to cars) into one ecosystem. 80% terminal 2026 year-end.
3. Global expansion: The goal is to overtake Apple in sales in India and Latin America, and Xiaomi is localizing production to do so, with 7 smartphone manufacturing plants in India, for example.

However, there are risks:

• 📉 Huawei: After the lifting of sanctions against Huawei in 2023, Xiaomi lost 5% of the market in China.
• 🔋 Qualcomm’s dependency: 70% of Xiaomi smartphones run on Snapdragon chips, making the company vulnerable to US sanctions.
• 🇪🇺 Regulatory Barriers in the EU: New Digital Markets Law (DMA) Xiaomi may be forced to change its data collection policy.

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The main trend for Xiaomi in 2026 is the shift from a “smartphone company” to a “tech ecosystem,” which means that new devices (such as the Xiaomi Watch 3 or Mi Band 9) will increasingly integrate with electric cars and smart homes, rather than exist separately.

FAQ: Frequent questions about Xiaomi owners