1
THE SOFTWARE YEARS
INT. WUHAN UNIVERSITY DORMITORY — NIGHT — 1987
A cramped dorm room. Textbooks are stacked on every surface. A young LEI JUN, 18, sits cross-legged on his bunk, reading a dog-eared copy of "Fire in the Valley" — the story of Steve Jobs and Silicon Valley. His roommate sleeps. Lei Jun does not.
LEI JUN
((whispering to himself))
He started in a garage. I don't even have a garage. But I have something he didn't — I have a billion people who need what I can build.
He closes the book. Stares at the ceiling. The light from a distant streetlamp cuts across his face.
INT. KINGSOFT OFFICES, ZHUHAI — DAY — 1992
LEI JUN, now 23, walks into the offices of Kingsoft, a scrappy Chinese software company. The office is modest — folding tables, whirring desktop computers, cigarette smoke. He is employee number six.
LEI JUN
I want to make the Chinese Microsoft. WPS Office can beat Word if we outwork them.
MONTAGE: Lei Jun coding through nights. Leading teams. Shipping product after product. WPS Office gains traction across China. He rises from engineer to CEO in six years.
INT. KINGSOFT CEO OFFICE — DAY — 2007
15 YEARS LATER
LEI JUN sits behind a large desk. He looks exhausted. The walls are covered with awards, but his eyes are empty. Kingsoft has gone public, but it never became Microsoft. He picks up an iPhone — just released. Turns it over in his hands.
LEI JUN
We spent fifteen years fighting Microsoft on their terms. On their platform. With their rules.
He sets the iPhone down gently, as if it were a sacred object.
LEI JUN
The platform just changed.
CUT TO:
INT. LEI JUN'S APARTMENT — NIGHT — 2009
Lei Jun paces his living room. Notebooks are scattered everywhere. He's been angel investing — UCWeb, YY Inc — watching mobile eat everything. He stops pacing. Picks up a marker. Writes on a whiteboard:
HARDWARE + SOFTWARE + INTERNET SERVICES = ?
LEI JUN
What if the phone was sold at cost? What if the real business was everything around it? What if we made the iPhone for everyone?
He circles the question mark and writes below it: XIAOMI.
2
HARDWARE AT COST
INT. YINGU BUILDING OFFICE, BEIJING — DAY — APRIL 6, 2010
XIAOMI IS FOUNDED
A small office. Fourteen people sit around a table drinking millet congee — "xiaomi" means "millet" in Chinese. LEI JUN stands at the head. LIN BIN, a former Microsoft and Google engineer, sits beside him.
LEI JUN
We are not a hardware company. We are not a software company. We are an internet company that happens to make hardware. The phone is the gateway. Everything else — cloud, services, apps, IoT — that's the business.
LIN BIN
Samsung charges $600 for phones that cost $200 to build. What if we charge $200?
LEI JUN
What if we charge $205? Five percent margin. Just enough to survive. And we sell direct — no stores, no distributors, no markups.
Silence around the table. Then one by one, the fourteen co-founders raise their bowls of congee.
INT. XIAOMI LAB — NIGHT — 2010
Engineers huddle over prototype phones. The custom Android skin — MIUI — is being refined. Lei Jun insists on weekly updates based on user feedback from forums.
LIN BIN
We've never released a phone. We have no brand. No retail presence. No carrier deals. How do we sell this?
LEI JUN
The internet. We sell flash sales — limited quantities, huge demand. Scarcity creates desire. Desire creates fans. Fans create a movement.
INT. BEIJING CONFERENCE CENTER — DAY — AUGUST 2011
XIAOMI MI 1 LAUNCH
Lei Jun walks onto a stage in a black polo and jeans — deliberately echoing Steve Jobs. The crowd is modest but electric. Behind him, a giant screen shows the Mi 1 phone.
LEI JUN
Dual-core Qualcomm processor. Four-inch screen. Eight-megapixel camera. This phone would cost you 3,000 yuan from Samsung. Our price — 1,999 yuan.
The crowd erupts. 1,999 yuan is roughly $300. For flagship specs, it's unheard of.
LEI JUN
((grinning))
And it sold out in — I'm told — under five minutes.
INT. SAMSUNG HEADQUARTERS, SEOUL — DAY — 2013
A Samsung executive stares at a market share report. China — once Samsung's biggest market — is shifting. A brand called Xiaomi is number one.
SAMSUNG EXEC
How is a company with no factories, no stores, no advertising budget outselling us in China?
An aide slides a chart across the table. Xiaomi's fan forums have millions of active users. Their flash sales generate the kind of frenzy Apple dreams of.
SAMSUNG EXEC
((stunned))
They're selling phones like concert tickets.
INT. XIAOMI HQ — DAY — 2013
HUGO BARRA, freshly departed from Google as VP of Android, walks in. He looks around at the chaotic, energetic office.
HUGO BARRA
At Google, we talked about reaching the next billion users. You're actually doing it.
LEI JUN
India is next. Then Southeast Asia. Then everywhere Samsung and Apple are overcharging people.
HUGO BARRA
The global playbook is different. Carrier relationships, regulatory approvals, patent portfolios —
LEI JUN
That's why I need you, Hugo. You know how the West works. I know how to build for everyone.
3
THE EMPIRE EXPANDS
EXT. MUMBAI STREET — DAY — 2014
A crowded Indian electronics market. A young man holds up a Xiaomi Redmi phone — the $45 model. His friends crowd around.
YOUNG MAN
This has the same processor as phones three times the price. My cousin in Bangalore says the camera is better than his Samsung.
Within months, Xiaomi is the number one smartphone brand in India. The $45 phone changes everything — bringing smartphones to hundreds of millions who could never afford one.
INT. XIAOMI ECOSYSTEM SHOWROOM — DAY — 2016
LEI JUN walks through a gleaming showroom filled with Xiaomi products. Not just phones — air purifiers, rice cookers, electric scooters, fitness bands, routers, backpacks. Hundreds of products from dozens of ecosystem companies Xiaomi has invested in.
LEI JUN
Every product in this room is connected. The phone is the remote control for your life. The air purifier talks to the phone. The rice cooker talks to the phone. Even the toothbrush talks to the phone.
By 2016, Xiaomi has invested in over 400 ecosystem companies. They don't just sell phones. They sell a lifestyle — at five percent margins.
INT. HONG KONG STOCK EXCHANGE — DAY — JULY 9, 2018
XIAOMI IPO — VALUED AT $54 BILLION
LEI JUN rings the bell at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The IPO prices at $54 billion — below the hoped-for $100 billion, but still massive. Lei Jun looks both triumphant and unsatisfied.
INVESTOR
The market doesn't know how to value you. Are you a hardware company? Software? Internet?
LEI JUN
We are all three. And the market will learn.
But privately, Lei Jun knows the stock price reflects a truth: phones alone aren't enough. He needs a new moonshot.
INT. XIAOMI BOARDROOM — NIGHT — 2020
Late at night. LEI JUN sits alone in the boardroom. On the table before him are teardown reports for Tesla Model 3, NIO ES6, and BYD Han. He's been studying electric vehicles for months.
LEI JUN
((into phone))
Lin Bin. I've made my decision. We're building a car.
LIN BIN
((V.O.))
Jun... we're a phone company. Cars are —
LEI JUN
Cars are the next smartphone. In 2010, everyone said we were insane to make phones. The car is just a bigger phone with wheels. Same playbook — great hardware, great software, internet services, sold near cost.
4
THE FINAL BET
INT. XIAOMI PRESS CONFERENCE — DAY — MARCH 30, 2021
LEI JUN stands on stage. Behind him, the words: "XIAOMI SMART ELECTRIC VEHICLE." The audience is electric.
LEI JUN
((voice breaking))
This is the last major entrepreneurial project of my life. I am willing to put my entire personal reputation on the line. I will lead the team personally. We are investing ten billion dollars over the next ten years.
He pauses. The room is silent.
LEI JUN
I am fifty-one years old. I have been building companies for thirty years. This is my final fight. And I intend to win.
INT. XIAOMI AUTO FACTORY, BEIJING — DAY — 2023
A state-of-the-art factory. Robots assemble cars with mechanical precision. LEI JUN walks the floor in a hardhat, inspecting every station. The SU7 sedan is taking shape — sleek, Porsche-like, unmistakably premium.
LEI JUN
Every panel gap must be within 0.1 millimeters. I don't care what Tesla's tolerances are. Ours will be better.
INT. XIAOMI SU7 LAUNCH EVENT — NIGHT — DECEMBER 28, 2023
LEI JUN takes the stage one more time. The SU7 is revealed — a sleek four-door sedan with a 668-horsepower motor option. The price: 215,900 yuan (roughly $30,000).
LEI JUN
They said a phone company can't make a car. They said the same thing about a software company making a phone. The pattern is always the same — they laugh, then they compete, then they lose.
The crowd roars. Within 24 hours, 90,000 orders are placed.
EXT. BEIJING HIGHWAY — DAY — 2024
A Xiaomi SU7 glides down the highway. Inside, LEI JUN drives, LIN BIN in the passenger seat. The dashboard displays Xiaomi's HyperOS — the same interface on their phones, tablets, and now their car. Everything connected. Everything Xiaomi.
LIN BIN
From millet congee to this. Fourteen people in a room to thirty thousand employees. A $45 phone to a $30,000 car.
LEI JUN
((smiling))
The mission never changed. Technology should be accessible to everyone. Whether it's a phone or a car or the future itself — everyone deserves the best, at a price they can afford.
The SU7 accelerates silently. Beijing's skyline glitters ahead.
EXT. XIAOMI CAMPUS — DUSK — 2025
LEI JUN stands alone on the rooftop of Xiaomi's sprawling campus. Below him, delivery trucks carrying SU7s roll out of the factory. In his hand, he holds a Xiaomi phone. He opens the Xiaomi Home app — it controls his air purifier, his rice cooker, his watch, and now his car.
Lei Jun built more than a company. He built an ecosystem — a philosophy that says the best technology shouldn't be a luxury. From a college kid reading about Steve Jobs in a dorm room to the man who out-Jobsed Jobs in the world's biggest market. Hardware at cost. Software for free. Fans, not customers. And when they told him phones weren't enough, he built a car.
Xiaomi shipped over 12 million SU7 and SU7 Ultra vehicles in its first full year. Lei Jun's net worth exceeded $30 billion. Xiaomi became the world's third-largest smartphone brand and the fastest-growing EV company in history. The $45 phone that started it all is now in a museum in Beijing — right next to the first SU7 off the assembly line.
FADE OUT.