Carl Pei : The man behind the Oneplus and the Nothing smart phone.

Carl Pei, also known as Pei Yu, is a Chinese-Swedish entrepreneur born on September 11, 1989, in Beijing, China. His family moved to the United States and later to the the Scandinavian country, Sweden.

In 2008, he enrolled at the Stockholm School of Economics to pursue a Bachelor of Science degree. However, this was short lived as he would drop out in 2011 to focus on Chinese smartphone industry.

Pei joined the Meizu’s marketing team in 2011 after briefly working for Nokia for 3 months. This opportunity arose due to a fan website he created about Meizu, which caught the attention of the company’s Hong Kong branch. Moreover, Pei has worked as an international markets manager at Oppo.

With Pete Lau, Carl Pei founded OnePlus in Shenzhen, China. The company quickly gained popularity with its affordable, high-quality smartphones. Pei was instrumental in the design and marketing of OnePlus devices until his departure in October 2020.

After leaving OnePlus, Pei founded Nothing, a consumer technology company based in London, in January 2021. The company’s mission is to create seamless, intuitive technology. Its first product was the Nothing Ear (1) wireless earbuds, launched in July 2021. Nothing’s latest devices are the Nothing Phone (3a) and Nothing Phone (3a) Pro, unveiled at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2025 which are all powered by tech giant Snapdragon.

Carl Pei’s net worth is estimated to be between $50 million and $80 million as of January 2025, primarily due to his successful ventures with OnePlus and Nothing.in addition to this, Pei was included in Forbes’ list of 30 Under 30 in Consumer Tech in 2016 and Fortune’s 40 Under 40 in 2019 for his contributions to OnePlus.