Last year, those who were skeptical about Xiaomi really got a slap in the face.

Because its profit model is quite ordinary. If we compare it to Apple, whether it’s the moat, profit margins, or growth expectations, it can't compete. The automotive business will only drag down its profitability.

But the discussions generated by the Xiaomi SU 7 on social media have been unprecedented. There’s no doubt that Lei Jun is the entrepreneur who understands how to interact with young people the best. The remaining entrepreneurial figures, like Li Bin and Zhou Hongyi, carry too much of a parental tone, and this generation of young people is the most averse to preachy indoctrination in history.

This year, Xiaomi transformed from a hardware-based company, struggling with online service revenue growth, into a Tesla-like, founder IP-driven company, a faith-based enterprise. The majority of its market value support is similar to Bitcoin, merely a different way of consensus stacking.

The biggest moat for such companies is actually the emotional intelligence of their founders.