Lei Jun's giving up is more worth watching than his success.

Over the past period, there has been a less noticeable but increasingly clear change in the technology industry: Some companies have started to voluntarily give up.

They give up some stable businesses, some proven paths, and even some positions that once defined themselves.

This does not conform to traditional business logic.

In most cases, once a company finds a growth model, what it will do is to hold on to it, expand it, and replicate it.

But now, more and more companies are doing the opposite.

It's not because of failure. On the contrary, it is often "when things seem most successful."

Lei Jun is a very typical example.

Over the past period, he has done several seemingly scattered things:

He stepped down as the chairman of Kingsoft, withdrawing from a position that he had held for decades.

He officially stopped the updates of MIUI at Xiaomi, which was the youth of the first - generation Mi fans.

He stopped the production of the first - generation SU7 and directly moved on to the next stage before the controversy had fully subsided.

In his public statements, he gradually reduced the emphasis on the smartphone business and shifted his attention to the automotive and AI sectors.

If these actions are looked at individually, they can all be explained as stage adjustments.

But taken together, they point to a clearer trend: Lei Jun is actively leaving the parts that have already been successful.

Just at this juncture, Xiaomi released an almost impeccable financial report.

In 2025, Xiaomi's revenue was 457.287 billion yuan, a year - on - year increase of 25%; the net profit attributable to shareholders was 41.643 billion yuan, a year - on - year increase of 76%; the revenue from the automotive business exceeded 100 billion yuan, becoming the most obvious second growth curve.

Everything seems to be becoming more stable.

But it is precisely on this basis of stability that Lei Jun chose a more unstable path.

The following question arises:

When a company can finally start to reap the rewards, why does it start to discard a part of itself?

1. The Endpoint Behind a Beautiful Financial Report

If only looking at the numbers, Xiaomi has almost no problems. The scale is expanding, the profit is improving, and the new business is growing.

But in the business world, there is a more hidden change that often does not show up in the financial report: The exhaustion of the story.

Xiaomi's basic business is still mobile phones. This business was once Lei Jun's most dazzling bet.

In 2014, Xiaomi's mobile phone shipments reached 61.12 million units, ranking first in the Chinese market. Lei Jun put forward the seven - character Internet mantra of "focus, extreme, word - of - mouth, and speed", and the entire industry was learning from Xiaomi.

In 2021, Xiaomi's global mobile phone shipments exceeded 190 million units, surpassing Apple for the first time and becoming the second - largest smartphone manufacturer in the world, second only to Samsung. That year, Lei Jun said at the press conference: "We have finally surpassed Apple."

That was the most glorious moment for Xiaomi's mobile phones. But after the glory, the ceiling came.

This is a mature, stable, and predictable business. But precisely because of this, its boundaries are becoming clearer: growth depends on the replacement cycle rather than new demand, costs are subject to the upstream, fluctuations are uncontrollable, pricing power is limited, and the competitive structure is solidified.

At the earnings conference call, Lu Weibing, the president of Xiaomi, mentioned: The increase in memory costs is more aggressive than expected.

This sentence is not complicated, but it means that Xiaomi cannot determine its own cost structure.

In 2025, Xiaomi's mobile phone business revenue was 186.4 billion yuan, a year - on - year decrease of 2.8%. In the same period, the revenue of the automotive and new business segments increased by more than 200% year - on - year.

The two curves clearly tell the market: The old engine is still running, but it can no longer tell a new story.

Lu Weibing also mentioned that price increases are an irreversible trend. He hopes that when Xiaomi raises prices, consumers and users can understand that Xiaomi has just held on a little longer than others.

The so - called "holding on a little longer" is essentially just a time difference.

That is to say, the mobile phone business can continue to support the scale, but it is difficult to play the role of telling the future.

This is a typical state. The company is healthy, but the imagination for growth begins to shrink. When a company's core business enters this stage, it often faces a choice: to continue to optimize the existing structure or to find a new, uncertain path.

Xiaomi chose the latter.

But this choice did not start from the financial report.

2. The Amplified Uncertainty

What really changed Xiaomi's rhythm was not success.

It was an injury.

In 2024, Xiaomi officially entered the automotive industry. This was the most obvious "cross - boundary" move in Lei Jun's career.

From consumer electronics to the automotive industry. From rapid - paced iteration to long - cycle verification. This is not an extension but a restart.

At the beginning, everything was within expectations, including the press conference, the level of attention, and the order volume.

27 minutes after the launch of the SU7, the number of large orders exceeded 50,000.

Lei Jun stood on the press - conference stage and felt that long - lost momentum in the automotive industry for the first time, just like the night in 2010 when he first stood on the Xiaomi mobile phone press - conference stage.

But soon, the other side emerged.

After the launch of the first - generation SU7, the controversy surrounding safety, quality, and reliability quickly amplified.

This kind of problem is not rare in the automotive industry.

But for Xiaomi, its special feature is that this is the first time it is no longer in an industry where it can be quickly upgraded and corrected.

Problems with mobile phones can be fixed through the next - generation products.

But problems with cars involve a longer cycle, heavier responsibilities, and slower feedback.

This means that mistakes will not be quickly covered up but will be continuously amplified.

For a company that has just entered this industry, this is a very high level of uncertainty.

And for Lei Jun, this is not only a business risk but also a familiar state: Being questioned, being scrutinized, and being repeatedly examined under a magnifying glass.

Only this time, the cost is higher.

3. Unavoidable Problems, Just Keep Moving Forward

If it were just an injury, the more common choice would be to shrink.

Reduce investment, slow down the pace, and wait for verification. But Xiaomi did not do this.

On the contrary, it made a more radical decision: to directly enter the next stage.

Before the first - generation SU7 was fully digested, the second generation was already in the works. Even at the brand level, Xiaomi did not try to smooth out the controversy but chose a more proactive approach.

For example, the brand ambassador Shu Qi.

This is not just a marketing move. It is more like an expression, incorporating the controversy into the narrative rather than avoiding it.

Shu Qi's career path itself represents a typical re - definition, from being questioned to being accepted and then to being recognized.

This path forms a subtle correspondence with the situation of a new car.

This cannot solve all problems.

But it conveys an attitude of not waiting for the problems to disappear but continuing to move forward in the face of their existence.

This is an important turning point.

Because it marks a change in Lei Jun's decision - making method.

In the past, he was better at making the optimal choice in a certain situation.

Now, he has started to accept another state, continuing to place bets in the face of uncertainty.

4. When Stability Is No Longer the Optimal Choice

If giving up is the starting point and being injured is the turning point, then placing bets is the result.

After this financial report, the most important information that Xiaomi gave was not about revenue and profit.

It was another sentence: Over the next five years, R & D investment will exceed 200 billion yuan.

This figure itself is not the key. The key lies in the timing when it occurs, when the company is already stable, when the new business has just started, and when the risks have not been fully digested.

This is not a defensive move but more like an active increase in investment.

The direction of the increased investment is not in the proven businesses. It is in AI, embodied intelligence, and more unformed fields. Embodied intelligence is the most difficult part to price in this bet.

Since 2025, this track has suddenly become crowded.

More than 1,000 Tesla Optimus robots are working in parallel in the factory. Elon Musk said that by the end of 2026, this number will exceed 100,000; XPeng launched its humanoid robot Iron, and He Xiaopeng said at the press conference that this is "the most important bet for the next decade"; Li Auto also announced its entry into the embodied intelligence track, and Li Xiang described it in an internal letter as the biggest structural opportunity after electric vehicles.

This phenomenon itself is worthy of attention. It means that embodied intelligence is no longer just a topic of frontier research but has become an industrial bet in which almost all leading technology companies are placing bets at the same time.

When Tesla, XPeng, Li Auto, and Xiaomi all enter the same track at the same time, it does not mean following the trend but indicates that a deeper - level judgment is forming a consensus: the next human - machine interaction interface is not a mobile phone nor a car but a body that can move, perceive, and execute in the physical world.

The logic behind Xiaomi's bet on embodied intelligence is not complicated. It already has an IoT ecosystem, supply - chain capabilities, and experience in large - scale mass production of consumer - grade hardware. These capabilities were advantages in the mobile - phone era and may also hold true in the era of embodied intelligence.

But no one knows how long this path will be.

These directions have a common feature: The path is unclear, the return is uncertain, and the cycle is longer.

This is in sharp contrast to the mobile - phone business.

One is mature, stable, and predictable, while the other is vague, volatile, and uncertain.

Lei Jun's choice is to continuously transfer resources from the former to the latter. This is not the most efficient choice. But it conforms to another logic, which is to prevent the company from being locked in an established structure.

Because once the structure is stable, the space for change will shrink rapidly. And for a corporate founder, this may be more worthy of vigilance than risks.

5. The Misalignment Between the Company and the Person

If we take a broader view, we will see a more common phenomenon.

Today's technology companies are being shaped by two forces at the same time.

On one side, there is the system. The system requires stability, efficiency, replicability, and sustainability.

On the other side, there is the founder. The founder promotes change, leaps, uncertainty, and discontinuous growth.

In many cases, these two can be compatible. But as the company grows, the system will become stronger and the founder's space will become smaller.

So there will be a tension. The company tends to be stable, but the founder still hopes to make changes. Xiaomi is entering this stage.

The financial report represents the maturity of the system.

And a series of actions of giving up and placing bets represent the founder's dissatisfaction. There is no natural coordination mechanism between the two. They will coexist for a long time and may even conflict. And this conflict itself is a risk.

But there is also another possibility. When the system is strong enough, the founder's radicalness can be supported.

Xiaomi's healthy financial report today is, in a sense, becoming Lei Jun's confidence to continue taking risks. It is the system that is supporting the person who keeps wanting to cross the boundaries.

6. Why Is "Giving Up" Becoming More Common?

If we put this matter in a broader context, we will find that it is not only happening at Xiaomi.

More and more companies are starting to give up some old businesses, cut off some old paths, and re - enter uncertain fields.

The reason behind this is actually very simple. The old world is converging, and the new world has not yet unfolded.

Mobile phones are part of the old world. They have been fully competed, fully defined, and fully optimized.

Since peaking in 2016, the global smartphone shipments have been fluctuating around 1.2 billion units for many consecutive years, with no new growth space. On the other hand, AI terminals, humanoid robots, and autonomous driving are on the other side. The market scale is just starting to expand, which makes everyone believe that the market will become very large.

In this transition period, the dangerous state is not failure but being trapped in a success that has no more room.

This is why "giving up" has started to become a strategy. It's not because it's unimportant but because it no longer determines the future.

7. Radical or Risky?

If we have to summarize Lei Jun's changes in recent years, it may not be that he has become more radical or more risky, but that he has become more clear. He clearly knows what can be given up, what risks must be taken, and what paths are worth continuing.

This is not an easy state because it means that you have to make repeated choices between the established certainty and the unverified uncertainty.

Obviously, there is no standard answer for this kind of choice.

Lei Jun once said, "Even a pig can fly when it stands on the wind."

This sentence has been quoted countless times, but many people have ignored the other half that he never said: Before finding the next wind, you have to have the courage to leave the pig that is already flying.

What Lei Jun is doing is not simply expanding Xiaomi but constantly rewriting its boundaries.

This path may not be correct and may even be full of setbacks and costs.

But it at least shows one thing. In an era that increasingly emphasizes efficiency and stability, there are still people who choose to continue placing bets after being injured.

[Beyond the Page] Words

What Lei Jun has done, such as stepping down, stopping production, stopping updates, and heavily investing in AI, are essentially all the same thing: moving resources from the proven areas to the unverified areas.

This requires judgment and courage. But what is needed more is another thing: time.

You need to have enough time for the new things to grow, and you also need to have enough patience to wait for the old things to gradually fade away.

What Xiaomi has held on to for a while is not the cost but time.

And time never gives anyone an answer. It only gives results.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Beyond the Page", author: Huahua. It is published by 36Kr with authorization.