Lei Jun’s major decision： temporarily quit!
Author: Lei Chen
Compilation of Luo Yifan and Li Yutong
"Xiaomi SU7 is conducting a comprehensive road test nationwide, and we are currently making final preparations for the listing of Xiaomi SU7."Lei Jun, chairman and CEO of Xiaomi Group (1810.HK), released Weibo on the evening of February 4th, saying that in order to concentrate more on the automobile business, he would leave the Xiaomi mobile phone conference temporarily, and Lu Weibing, president of Xiaomi Group, would also be the general manager of Xiaomi brand and give a lecture on the Xiaomi mobile phone conference.
Lei Jun said,In the future, the Xiaomi mobile phone conference will be given by Lu Weibing, and the first game will be Xiaomi 14Ultra.At the same time, the mobile phone business has always been the core business of Xiaomi, and he will continue to maintain enough energy input.
Subsequently, Lu Weibing forwarded the above-mentioned Weibo and responded: "Thank you for your trust. Being the general manager of Xiaomi brand is a great responsibility and a glorious mission. We will go all out and make continuous progress in the established direction. Xiaomi 14Ultra released the meeting! " Up to now, the release time of 14Ultra has not been announced.
(Source: Weibo screenshot)
According to official website of Xiaomi Group, Lu Weibing joined Xiaomi Group in 2019, and has been responsible for the sales management in China and the international department, as well as the creation of Redmi brand, product planning, production, sales and marketing. He is currently a partner and president of Xiaomi Group and concurrently serves as the president of the international business department, in charge of the mobile phone department, the ecological chain department, the household appliances department, the China district and the Indian district.
In addition, Lei Jun also announced that Wang Teng would replace Lu Weibing as the general manager of Redmi brand. In September last year, Wang Teng returned to the headquarters after his rotation as the general manager of Xiaomi Henan Branch, and became the general manager of Redmi market and the spokesman of Redmi brand.
Complete the last link of the ecological chain
After several years of layout, internet technology companies have woven their own industrial ecological chains, driven by core technologies, and promoted the consumption cycle ability of all products.
In the eyes of the industry,Building a car by Xiaomi is expected to complete the last link in the Xiaomi ecological chain-a large mobile terminal, and become one of the most comprehensive manufacturers of intelligent mid-range ecological layout in the world.
In recent years, Lei Jun has shifted the focus of his work to the automobile business.
On March 30, 2021, Xiaomi officially announced the car. Lei Jun has made it clear that Xiaomi Automobile is the last major entrepreneurial project in his life, and he is willing to put all his reputation in life and personally lead the team to fight for Xiaomi Automobile.
In August 2021, Xiaomi Automobile held its first public event in Beijing, and released the design concept and technical route of Xiaomi Automobile. In January 2022, Xiaomi Automobile announced the construction of automobile factories in five places; In March 2022, Xiaomi Automobile released the first concept car "Xiaomi Automobile 1"; In August 2022, Xiaomi Automobile announced the completion of the A round of financing, with a financing amount of 10.8 billion yuan; In January 2023, Xiaomi Automobile announced that it would launch the first production car in 2024.
On December 28th, 2023, Xiaomi held the Xiaomi Automobile Technology Conference in Beijing, and Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun pre-released Xiaomi SU7 on the spot. The day after the appearance of Xiaomi SU7, Xiaomi Group officially signed a letter of intent for cooperation with the first batch of 14 sales and service partners at its Beijing headquarters.
On January 2nd, Xiaomi Auto officially announced the recruitment of Xiaomi Auto Sales and Service Integrated Store (2S) in 17 cities including Suzhou, Chongqing, Ningbo, Nanjing, etc., and the recruitment targets were the top 100 auto dealer groups or regional strong business partners. The channel mode of Xiaomi automobile is officially determined as "1+N" mode.
At present, the price of Xiaomi SU7 has not been announced yet. However, Lei Jun once made it clear: "Now the automobile industry is really rolling, but Xiaomi has grown from small to large and has never been afraid. Xiaomi SU7 currently has no rivals within 500,000, and there is no plan to launch Redmi car at present. "
Lei Jun will continue to build cars by immersion, paving the way for the commercialization of Xiaomi SU7. 21st century business herald reporter learned that the first floor of the building where Lei Jun’s office is located is Xiaomi’s global flagship headquarters, and Xiaomi SU7 has recently occupied the "C position" in the store, and sometimes some Xiaomi employees from other places stopped to watch and discuss.
(Source: 21st century business herald reporter, photo taken on January 24, 2024)
Xiaomi automobile ecological chain chess game
On February 4th, a person close to Xiaomi Group told 21st century business herald that Xiaomi Automobile has a factory in Yizhuang, but there is no more information to disclose about the first car off the assembly line at present.
In fact, Xiaomi did not build a car in a day. Before the official announcement of building a car, as a new entrant to build a car,In the early stage, Xiaomi has begun to complete automobile-related technologies through investment and equity participation, and proactively laid out competitive focus areas such as smart driving.
According to Debon Securities, Xiaomi has laid out the whole automobile industry chain through Shunwei Capital, Xiaomi Changjiang Industry Fund and Xiaomi Private Equity Fund, covering the core smart car hardware fields such as on-board chips, lidar, visual sensing, intelligent cockpit, intelligent driving and power battery.
In the field of in-vehicle chips, in June 2020, Xiaomi Group participated in the A+ round investment of BYD Semiconductor; In October 2020, Xiaomi Group participated in the CMOS image sensor chip design company Sitway; In October 2020, Xiaomi Group participated in the A+ round of financing of Lingming Photonics, a 3D sensor chip manufacturer; In July 2021, Xiaomi Group participated in the strategic round of financing of Black Sesame Intelligent Technology, and led its C round of financing in September.
In the field of lidar, in January 2019, Shunwei Capital participated in the financing of Beixing Photon B+ round of lidar developer, and continued to participate in Beixing Photon C round in December 2022; In June 2021, Xiaomi Group led the investment in the D round of financing of Hesai Technology, and invested in the D+ round alone in November; In August, 2021, Shunwei Capital participated in the B+ round of financing of Tudatong, a developer of lidar intelligent sensing; In September, 2023, Xiaomi Group took the lead in the strategic round of exploration technology.
In the field of visual sensors, in July 2020, Xiaomi Group strategically invested in Chengrui Optics, a provider of optical products and optical solutions; In February 2021, Xiaomi Group invested in the MEMS sensor company Sirui Technology; In July 2021, Xiaomi Group participated in the C-round financing of French machine vision company Puno Freescale.
In the field of intelligent cockpit, in May 2016, Shunwei Capital and Xiaomi Group both participated in the A-round financing of Die Ya Information Technology, an in-vehicle intelligent hardware manufacturer; In April, 2020, Xiaomi Group invested exclusively in the B+ wheel of Botai Automobile Federation, a car networking enterprise.
In the field of intelligent driving, in January 2017, Shunwei Capital participated in the A+ round of financing of Chusu Technology, participated in its B round of financing in July 2017, and participated in the C round of financing in March 2021; In June 2017, Shunwei Capital participated in the A round of financing of Zhixing, and in April 2018, it participated in the B round of financing; In June 2021, Xiaomi Group led the D+ round of financing of Zongmu Technology; In July 2021, Xiaomi Group wholly acquired DeepMotion； for 77.37 million US dollars; In August 2021, Xiaomi Group took the lead in the Pre-A+ round of financing for geometric partners, and participated in its strategic financing in October 2021.
The field of power batteries relates to power battery manufacturing and battery upstream industrial chain. In December 2018, Xiaomi Changjiang Industrial Fund strategically financed Zhuhai Guanyu; In December 2020, Xiaomi Group participated in the PreA round of financing of AVIC Lithium Battery; In July 2021, Xiaomi Group participated in the financing of 10.28 billion yuan in the B round of Honeycomb Energy, and in August, it led the investment in the strategic financing of Ganfeng Lithium Battery.
Debon Securities Research Report predicts that under the blessing of a strong automobile investment ecosystem, everything is ready for the listing of SU7, and Xiaomi is expected to build a Xiaomi automobile technology tree and grow into another "catfish" of smart cars.
SFC
Editor of this issue Li Yutong Intern Song Jiayao
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