Lei Jun rose from humble roots to build a $20 billion-plus tech fortune

Lei Jun, the founder, chairman and CEO of Xiaomi grew up in a modest family in China, studied computer science at Wuhan University and went on to build one of the world’s best-known technology companies. His father was a teacher who earned about $7 a month in the early 1980s, according to TIME magazine. Decades later, Jun would become a billionaire whose fortune was estimated at over $20 billion by Forbes in September 2026.But Lei Jun's story is not only about his wealth. One of the most interesting parts of his journey goes back to his university years, when he received a 2,000-yuan scholarship and made a promise to himself that he would repay the help one day.