He Xiaopeng (; born 3November 1977) is a Chinese

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values th ...

, best known for co-founding companies including XPeng Motors, an intelligent electric vehicle manufacturer, and

UCWeb UCWeb Inc. (also known as UC Mobile) is a Chinese mobile Internet company that offers products and services including mobile browser, UC News, and search. Its flagship product, UC Browser, topped the Chinese, Indonesian and Indian markets in 20 ...

, the Chinese mobile Internet software and service provider he co-founded in 2004. UCWeb was acquired by Alibaba Group in June 2014 in the largest M&A deal ever in Chinese Internet industry. After acquisition, he was named as president of UCWeb and president of the Alibaba Mobile Business Group, and later served as the president of Tudou & Ali Games. On 22 August 2017, Xiaopeng left

Alibaba Ali Baba (character), Ali Baba is a character from the folk tale ''Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves''. Ali Baba or Alibaba may also refer to: Films * Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (1902 film), ''Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves'' (1902 film), a F ...

and officially joined XPeng Motors on 29 August as chairman of the startup.

Early life and education

Born in

Huangshi Huangshi (), alternatively romanized as Hwangshih, is a prefecture-level city in southeastern Hubei province, People's Republic of China. Its population was 2,469,079 inhabitants at the 2020 census; 1,567,108 of whom lived in the built-up (''or ...

Hubei Hubei (; ; alternately Hupeh) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, and is part of the Central China region. The name of the province means "north of the lake", referring to its position north of Dongting Lake. The prov ...

, where he spent his childhood. He graduated from the

South China University of Technology The South China University of Technology (SCUT; ) is a public university in Guangzhou, Guangdong, China. The university is co-sponsored by the China Ministry of Education and the Guangdong Provincial People's Government. The university is a mult ...

with a bachelor degree in computer science.

Career

Early career

He worked at AsiaInfo Technologies in various roles including technology manager, testing manager and project manager after graduation in his early career.

UCWeb: 2004–2017

He co-founded

with Liang Jie in 2004 overseeing the company product strategy and R&D efforts. In June 2014, UCWeb was acquired by e-commerce giant Alibaba Group for $4,3 billion making He Xiaopeng a billionaire. From 2014 to August 2017, Xiaopeng served as senior executive of Alibaba Mobile Business Division. On 22 August 2017, Xiaopeng officially announced his resignation from all his positions in Alibaba to start a new adventure and lead startup XPeng Motors.

XPeng Motors: 2017–present

In 2014, He Xiaopeng supported Xia Heng and He Tao in the foundation of XPeng Motors, an electric self-driving vehicle automobile company. The company received initial investments from Li Xueling, Fu Sheng, Wu Xiaoguang, Zhang Ying, and other investors to work on

autonomous driving A self-driving car, also known as an autonomous car, driver-less car, or robotic car (robo-car), is a car that is capable of traveling without human input.Xie, S.; Hu, J.; Bhowmick, P.; Ding, Z.; Arvin, F.,Distributed Motion Planning for S ...

engineering and machine learning. XPeng's stated goal was to manufacture networked cars in China with capabilities like

electrification Electrification is the process of powering by electricity and, in many contexts, the introduction of such power by changing over from an earlier power source. The broad meaning of the term, such as in the history of technology, economic histor ...

, intelligence, networking and autonomous driving. In September 2016, XPeng Motors released the beta version of its prototype G3 intelligent electric mini-SUV in Beijing. The car received positive reviews for its design, performance and technology. He became full-time chairman of XPeng in August 2017. XPeng Motors currently manufactures its G3 intelligent electric SUV in China, and distributes and supports its vehicles through a chain of retail and service centers across the country. The company's P7 intelligent electric sports coupe model is scheduled to come to market in the spring of 2020.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:He, Xiaopeng 1977 births Living people 21st-century Chinese businesspeople Alibaba Group people Businesspeople from Hubei Chinese founders of automobile manufacturers People from Huangshi South China University of Technology alumni XPeng people