Key Takeaways:
XIAOMI-W (1810.HK) chairman Lei Jun said the more than RMB10 billion that online posts attributed to him from YUSHU TECHNOLOGY's (688836.SH) Shanghai listing belongs to Shunwei Capital, the venture firm he founded, and not to his personal account.
"The investment was not made by me personally, but by Shunwei Capital under my umbrella," Lei said during a livestream, adding that the position was "not an IPO subscription investment, but rather an early-stage angel investment and early-stage venture capital investment."
Lei said he has known YUSHU TECHNOLOGY founder Wang Xingxing for more than a decade and that Shunwei was the sole investor in the robotics company's Series A funding round. Shunwei's own shareholders, rather than Lei alone, captured the gain, he said.
The distinction matters because XIAOMI-W is the listed vehicle through which most investors can express a view on Lei's capital allocation. Shunwei Capital sits outside the Xiaomi group structure, so proceeds from the YUSHU stake do not flow into Xiaomi's balance sheet, its cash position, or its shareholder return program. Xiaomi traded at HK$27.19, down HK$0.380 or 1.378%, on the session referenced in the disclosure.
Short sellers were already positioned against that read-through. Short selling in XIAOMI-W totaled US$1.45 billion, equal to 41.249% of turnover, according to data as at 16:25 HKT on Sept. 22 — a ratio that puts the stock among the most heavily shorted large caps in Hong Kong and shows how much of the float is being used to bet against the name.
YUSHU TECHNOLOGY, which leapfrogged on its STAR Market debut in August, traded at a decline of RMB5.650, or 1.142%, in the same snapshot, giving back part of its listing pop. The stock's retreat narrows the paper value of the Shunwei position and, by extension, the size of the windfall that circulated in the original rumor.
The clarification lands alongside a separate thread of news flow on Xiaomi. Goldman Sachs maintained a Buy rating on XIAOMI-W, saying the MiMo-V2.6 RL livestream showed better returns for Flash. That note keeps the focus on Xiaomi's own AI and device roadmap rather than on the venture portfolio, which is where the YUSHU gain sits.
For holders, the practical question is whether the rumor correction changes anything in the equity story. It does not change Xiaomi's earnings, its smartphone and EV shipments, or its capital return plans. What it removes is a narrative that Lei personally booked a RMB10 billion-plus profit — a framing that, if left standing, would have invited questions about why none of it reached the listed company. The 41.249% short-selling ratio suggests part of the market is trading Xiaomi on its operating outlook, not on the venture portfolio.
The next scheduled checkpoints are Xiaomi's quarterly results and any further disclosure on Shunwei's holdings, with the short-selling ratio the most immediate gauge of whether bearish positioning unwinds after the clarification.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
