He Xiaopeng

He Xiaopeng is the founder, chairman, and CEO of XPeng Inc., one of China's leading smart electric vehicle makers. Born in 1977 in Hubei Province, He studied computer science and co-founded UCWeb, which became China's most popular mobile browser before being acquired by Alibaba Group in 2014 for approximately $4.3 billion. The UCWeb exit gave He both the capital and the credibility to launch an electric vehicle company. What distinguishes He Xiaopeng from other Chinese EV founders is his deep software background. He built XPeng with the conviction that the future of cars is defined by software, not hardware. XPeng develops its entire autonomous driving system (XNGP) in-house, from perception algorithms to planning stacks, rather than using off-the-shelf solutions from Mobileye or Nvidia Drive. This strategy is expensive but has positioned XPeng as arguably the most advanced Chinese automaker in autonomous driving, with city-level navigation assistance available in dozens of Chinese cities. He made bold and sometimes controversial strategic decisions. The 2023 acquisition of Didi's smart EV unit (Project "MONA") gave XPeng access to a mass-market platform and Didi's ride-hailing ecosystem. The resulting MONA M03, priced around 120,000 RMB, became XPeng's best-selling model and proved the company could compete on volume, not just technology. He also struck a landmark deal with Volkswagen, licensing XPeng's EV platform and software to the German giant — a reversal of the traditional technology-transfer direction that made headlines globally. He Xiaopeng's decisions on R&D spending levels, autonomous driving rollout pace, VW partnership expansion, and MONA brand execution are the critical drivers of XPeng's valuation. His willingness to invest heavily in technology during loss-making years makes XPeng a high-conviction bet on China's smart mobility future.