Li is the founder and chairman of Geely Automobile in 1986, which is the second largest private automobile manufacturer in China. Currently, he resides in Hangzhou, the capital city ofZhejiang province. On 28 March 2010, Geely signed a deal worth US$1.8 billion to buy Volvo Cars from American automobile manufacturer Ford Motor Company. It was the largest foreign purchase by a Chinese car manufacturer. Along with $900m of working capital from Geely and a commitment to build a Volvo factory in China, Li had a target of driving sales to 600,000 by 2015 in the domestic market. In 2013, Hurun Report ranked Li the 63rd richest person in mainland China, with a net worth of US$2.6 billion. Li announced in November 2018 that he has entered into an agreement with the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp. to build a new line of supersonic bullet trains. The plan is for the trains to run using newly developed technology. Li said, "Core technology can't be bought. The more you use others' technology, the more reliant you become. We have to innovate on our own. The journey will be tough but the prospects are promising." In 2018, according to the Financial Times, Li has become Daimler's largest shareholder, with a 9.7% stake in the German automaker. In March 2020, Li is in talks with Volvo Cars to merge with Geely in his move to create China's first global auto maker. Both Volvo and Geely are owned by Mr. Li's investment fundZhejiangGeely Holding Group, but are being operated as separate entities.
Football sponsorship
Geely Group sponsored China's Jia B League team Guangzhou F.C. in 2001. However, after the 2001 China Jia B League Match Fixing, at the end of the season, Li ended his involvement sponsoring football and was quoted as saying, "We won't come back until the Chinese football environment gets better."
Personal life
Li is married and lives in Hangzhou, China. He writes poetry.
Li has criticized the automotive industry joint venture system in China as producing large profits for foreign original equipment manufacturers and Tier 1 suppliers at the expense of innovation, quality and technology advancement by Chinese automotive OEMs. According to Li, this has led to complacency by domestic automotive OEMs by relying on profits from foreign partners through joint ventures instead of driving their own organisations to hire talent and improve, knowing they would control half of joint ventures run with profitable overseas manufacturers that generate healthy sales. He has previously argued for state-owned automotive manufacturers to partner with privately-run companies.
