(Yicai Global) Sept. 15 -- Xiaomi's stock price tumbled today after the Chinese tech firm, whose shares touched an all-time high nearly two weeks ago, said that founder Lin Bin has sold 350 million shares, gaining about USD1 billion.

Xiaomi's equity price [HK: 1810] fell 5.5 percent to HKD22.25 (USD2.90) this afternoon. On Sept. 2, the shares hit a historic high of HKD26.96, which is more than double the price that the company started the year with, amid expected benefit from rival Huawei Technologies's headwinds abroad.

Lin sold Class B shares, each holding one voting right, to Goldman Sachs, the Beijing-based electronics maker said in a statement today, without disclosing the price. Based on the current market price, the number would yield about USD1 billion.

The vice chairman's holdings will fall to about 10 percent from 11.4 percent, second only to Chairman Lei Jun who has a 27 stake. Lin has promised that he will not sell any more Xiaomi equity for five years, except for the 120 million shares that he has earlier earmarked for charity purposes.

In August 2019, Lin sold 41.3 million shares, making HKD370 million (USD47.7 million) for personal needs that included philanthropic efforts. He promised to wait for 12 months before unloading more.

Before establishing Xiaomi with Lei in 2010, Bin was a research and development executive at Google and Microsoft.

Editor: Dou Shicong, Emmi Laine