Deli Zhao

Deli Zhao is the founder and president of Xpeng AeroHT (小鹏汇天), the flying-car company that has grown into Asia's largest in the sector, with a valuation exceeding $1 billion as of late 2024 . Born near Dongting Lake in Hunan, Zhao dropped out of high school and spent years in factory work, insurance sales, and real-estate brokerage before founding Huitian Technology in Dongguan in 2013 with the roughly RMB 20 million he had earned from a model-aircraft business, pouring it into developing low-altitude manned aircraft . After near-total financial collapse—by 2016 his team had shrunk to two people and he was drowning in credit-card and online-loan debt—he achieved a breakthrough manned flight with a self-built flying motorbike in June 2018 following more than 1,500 test flights and dozens of crashes .

He Xiaopeng, founder of Xpeng Motors, came to Dongguan in July 2020, took a test flight, and decided to commit capital and resources; Xpeng AeroHT was formally established that September, with He as majority shareholder and chairman and Zhao as president . The company raised $500 million in a Series A round in October 2021, moved its headquarters to Guangzhou, and expanded to nearly 1,000 employees, over half of them with master's or doctoral degrees and more than 25% from aviation backgrounds . Its product line now includes five flying-car models, among them the modular "Land Aircraft Carrier" . Zhao has described himself as the firm's only executive without a university degree, and, in a 2022 interview with 5Y Capital, embraced the label of "madness" as a prerequisite for outsized innovation .