"Madman" Yu Hao painted a "quadrillion" hat for Dreame.
Yu Hao chose a position for himself.
A target position destined to be ridiculed.
Within a single day, he posted several articles, directly naming and confronting rival companies, bluntly stating that they "hired online trolls" and that it was "low - cost and high - efficiency." He posted in the middle of the night, asking netizens to immediately leave comments asking any bloggers, media, or self - media outlets to delete "any videos or articles that slander Dreame or target me personally." He set his sights on Elon Musk, saying, "In 20 years, Tesla will be driven to losses." He called out to Yu Chengdong, saying, "Wherever you work is work. Why not join Dreame?" He also set a goal of "becoming the world's richest person within five years."
Within less than two months at the beginning of 2026, he posted about 300 Weibo posts, and his influence soared to the second place in the digital circle, only second to Lei Jun. He said in his WeChat Moments that Dreame aims to become "the first company ecosystem worth one quadrillion US dollars in human history."
In mid - April, after the interview manuscript of "LatePost" was published, Dreame's official account "Dreame People" selected 8 golden quotes from the manuscript and published them in a collection. The first one was: "If 'arrogance' means daring to dream, then be arrogant. Arrogance is not a bad thing."
In the midst of controversy, Yu Hao actively labeled himself as "arrogant." For many years after founding Dreame in 2017, Yu Hao's image was that of an outstanding Tsinghua University graduate, a tech - focused geek who started with high - speed digital motors and worked quietly on products.
Now, he is a completely different person.
Amidst his wild and reckless words, occasionally, another side of him can be seen. He posted on Weibo in the middle of the night, saying that he often cries and asking, "Do you?" After seeing unpleasant comments in the comment section, he posted, saying, "I have an INTJ personality. Some words that hurt me will make me feel bad for a long time. It's really hurtful and bad for my health." He also dug out program videos from many years ago at night. In the program, he was still a postgraduate student in aerospace at Tsinghua's "Sky Workshop" and reposted several of them.
"The Little Prince" seems to be another side of him. In the interview with "LatePost", Yu Hao mentioned changing his WeChat avatar to "The Little Prince." The purpose was to "remind himself to return to the simple state of the past" and to ask himself again, "What do I really want to do?"
The opening of "The Little Prince" features two paintings by the pilot:
At the age of 6, after thinking a lot about jungle adventures, the pilot drew his first picture. When he showed it to the adults and asked if they were scared, he got the reply: "What's there to be scared of about a hat?"
What he drew was a python digesting an elephant. To make the adults understand, his second work was born. The second work was like a perspective view of a snake swallowing an elephant, used to explain that what he drew was not a hat.
At the age of 39, Yu Hao also drew a picture for Dreame.
A main line extends from the bottom - left corner of the canvas, marked "High - speed digital motor." This line keeps branching, spiraling upwards, giving rise to vacuum cleaners, floor sweepers, hair dryers, and then continues to extend upwards, turning into the in - wheel motors of cars, the imaging algorithms of mobile phones, the thrusters of airplanes, and the nanoscale circuits of chips. At the end of the line, there are faintly written words: "One quadrillion ecosystem." In the past year, Dreame has been trying to transform from a smart cleaning company to a super - ecosystem covering "cars, homes, the sky, and chips."
To the outside world, it seems to be just a hat. Along with huge investments, internal turmoil, and external doubts, criticism and ridicule have come from all directions. The keywords are always the same: "PPT car - making," "the second LeEco," and "crazy."
Yu Hao on Weibo: A former science - tech guy who rarely used exclamation marks
Yu Hao in the process of change is a business case worthy of observation.
In April 2023, Yu Hao reposted and commented on a phenomenon - level manuscript that was trending at that time, "The Latest Speech Transcript of Qi Lu: My Worldview of Large - scale Models."
He wrote in the comment:
I'm not that excited about this matter.
When everyone says that something is the future and a revolution, the world often turns out differently from what we expect.
Don't forget that in the 1960s and 1970s, everyone thought that the supersonic era had arrived, and intercontinental flights would be shortened to less than two hours. Flying cars would be everywhere, and interstellar travel would happen in the near future. Unexpectedly, the world took a turn. Computers and the Internet came.
Now, ChatGPT makes everyone think that this is the future, the world is about to change, many jobs will be lost, and large - scale models contain countless entrepreneurial opportunities. I don't think so.
We are always shocked by incremental innovation because it is the future direction agreed upon by the industry, and it is the future that big companies have bet a lot of money on. In fact, the future often emerges in an unremarkable garage right now, in another seemingly unremarkable track. The future often switches to another path, leaving everyone stunned.
Going against Qi Lu, the "AI preacher" at that time, was a kind of "arrogance" to some extent, but it was logical and well - founded.
This is the third publicly available post on Yu Hao's Weibo. The first one was about vacuum cleaners, Dyson, and Dreame's V10 high - speed motor. The second one was Yu Hao's affirmation of his early layout in the robotic agriculture sector after seeing an article titled "The World Will Face a Severe Rice Shortage" and his joy at the thought of harvesting the first batch of rice in five months.
"I can't even explain to myself why I had the feeling to do this at that time. I just thought it was worth doing and cool."
"I think this is as important as Elon Musk sending people to Mars! Taking care of the eight billion people on Earth is as important as sending people into outer space!"
For a long time, Yu Hao's Weibo was like an extension of Dreame's unofficial official website. New store openings, public welfare updates, award acknowledgments, recruitment information, and sharing of "618" and "Double 11" results accounted for more than 80% of the content.
Occasionally, he would also post his personal views on internationalization strategies, brand high - endization, organizational structure trends, product technology, etc.
These views basically had a similar style: several hundred words, straightforward in expressing opinions, logical, well - supported by data and facts, without pictures, and only occasionally using exclamation marks when the emotions were strong. This was similar to his style in the interview videos with media personalities Xu Zhiyuan and Li Xiang.
Of course, it is very likely that these contents were carefully edited by the team.
On February 11, 2026, Yu Hao explained on Weibo why he posted 20 dynamic posts in a day. He said bluntly, "Because I've only been directly involved in the Internet for about three weeks, I mean directly posting content myself. Usually, when I first start doing something, I'll test quickly, get feedback quickly, make mistakes quickly, and then summarize and adjust."
Looking back in time, this coincides with the time when the style of Yu Hao's Weibo suddenly changed in mid - January.
On January 17, Yu Hao published a short article on his Weibo titled "A Simple Response."
He was responding to a screenshot that circulated in Dreame's internal work group two days ago.
On January 15, a chat screenshot from Dreame Technology's internal work group circulated. In the screenshot, an employee publicly spoke in the work group related to "Dreame Smart Cars" and directly questioned the vision of the "one - quadrillion - dollar ecosystem" proposed by Yu Hao, the company's founder and CEO. The words were intense, and then the incident was screenshot and spread by many employees, becoming a hot topic.
The content of the employee's refutation was mainly aimed at the previously circulated screenshot of Yu Hao's WeChat Moments, in which he claimed that "the Dreame ecosystem will become the first company ecosystem worth one quadrillion US dollars in human history." The employee bluntly scolded, "Are you on drugs? Surpass NVIDIA (NVDA) in one year and achieve what all Chinese car companies haven't achieved in 30 years?" and sharply questioned whether the company's senior management understood US laws.
From here on, Yu Hao gradually started using Weibo, Douyin, etc. like his WeChat Moments.
From February 9th for three days, the emotional intensity of Yu Hao's Weibo posts was very high. In the past, he only confronted online trolls and rival companies, but suddenly he turned his spearhead towards the "advisers."
For example, "Those who want to give me advice, don't compare with what I did in school, and don't look at the continuous doubling growth in the following years! First, reach my level in the first two years." "Those who want to give me 'well - meaning' reminders, take care of yourselves first." "I was the chairman of the student union of the School of Aerospace Engineering at Tsinghua University." "My ability in scientific research is no worse than that of Wei Dongyi."
At this time, Yu Hao, who is increasingly fond of using exclamation marks, has a completely different style from when he first registered in 2023.
Drew an "elephant," but others say it's a "hat"
"Some media are crazy. Is setting a high goal considered bragging?" In mid - April, Yu Hao was highly active on social media again. He may really not understand why the high goals he set are considered bragging in the view of some outside opinions.
In Yu Hao's argument, what he sees is not bragging but historical law.
His logical chain is like this: The ceiling of the highest - valued company in human history is raised by about an order of magnitude every twenty years. Currently, the company with the highest market value in the world is NVIDIA, with a value of about 4.5 trillion US dollars. Entrepreneurs like Jensen Huang and Elon Musk in this generation are expected to push the ceiling to 8 to 10 trillion US dollars. But they are old. Yu Hao, born in 1987, believes that he is a generation younger than them, and the mission of this generation is to push the ceiling of the market value of human companies up by another order of magnitude - to reach one quadrillion US dollars.
"I'm talking about the future, not one year. Making the first company worth one quadrillion US dollars in human history is indeed my goal. It's what I and those who believe in us will strive for in the next twenty years. What if it comes true?" He wrote this in response to the controversy on Weibo. His theory is that there will definitely be a company that reaches one quadrillion US dollars in twenty years. "If it's not Dreame, it will be someone else. Why not give it a try?"
What he sees as the "elephant" is not limited to this.
At CES 2026, the concept super - car Nebula NEXT 01 launched by Dreame's Starry Sky Project is said to be able to achieve 0 - 100 km/h acceleration in 1.8 seconds and have a cruising range of 1000 kilometers, comparable to the Bugatti Veyron. At the AWE 2026 exhibition, Dreame displayed the world's first bionic six - legged three - section crawler - type stair - climbing floor - sweeping robot Cyber X. There is also a concept of "Dreame Aviation" circulating internally, involving elements such as differentiated services, internet celebrities, and stars.
Dreame's basic business of cleaning appliances is not without real capabilities.
In 2025, Dreame's floor - sweeper shipments reached 3.4 million units, with a global market share of 10.5%, a year - on - year increase of 101.9%. Its products entered 120 countries and regions around the world, ranking first in the market share in 30 countries. Among them, the market share in 18 countries such as Poland, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Germany exceeded 40%. For six consecutive years, the average annual compound growth rate has exceeded 100%.
Yu Hao is quite confident about this: "We have been profitable in total since our establishment," and "For six consecutive years, with a high - speed growth rate of 100% per year and a continuously increasing net profit margin, this is rare in the world."
In his mind, these fragments put together form the giant python that can swallow an elephant: Use the cash flow from cleaning appliances as a foundation, transfer the technological accumulation of high - speed digital motors, AI perception, and SLAM algorithms to new tracks such as cars, and use the model of "using mature businesses to support innovative businesses" to achieve self - financing, and finally swallow the elephant called the "one - quadrillion - dollar ecosystem."
So what do others see?
A hat, a hat that makes people subconsciously feel confused and frown.
The first crack comes from the financial data. According to comprehensive reports from multiple media, Dreame Technology's revenue in the first three quarters of 2025 reached 12.07 billion yuan, with a net profit of 1.04 billion yuan. Some media predict that Dreame Technology's annual revenue in 2025 will be about 30 billion yuan, with a net profit of over 2 billion yuan. There are also speculations that the revenue is estimated to be about 15 billion yuan, with a profit of 2 - 2.5 billion yuan.
