DJI is a Chinese technology company headquartered in Shenzhen, Guangdong. DJI manufactures commercial unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) for aerial photography and videography. It also designs and manufactures camera systems, gimbal stabilizers, propulsion systems, enterprise software, aerial agriculture equipment, and flight control systems.
DJI accounted for over 90% of the world's consumer drone market as of June 2024. Its camera drone technology is widely used in the music, television, and film industries. The company's products have also been used by military and police forces, as well as terrorist groups, with the company taking steps to limit access to the latter.
DJI products have drawn concerns over privacy and security. They have been used by combatants from all sides in the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The company has been designated as a "Chinese Military Company" and sanctioned by the United States government, but its drones can still be purchased and operated in the country.
History
The company was founded in 2006 by Frank Wang (Wāng Tāo, ). Born in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, he enrolled as a college student at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) in 2003. He was part of the HKUST team participating in the ABU Robocon and won third prize.
Wang built the first prototypes of DJI's projects in his dorm room, selling the flight control components to universities and Chinese electric companies. He used the proceeds to move to the industrial hub of Shenzhen and hired a small staff in 2006. The company struggled at first with a high degree of turnover among employees, attributed to Wang's abrasive personality and perfectionist expectations. The company sold a modest number of components during this period, relying on financial support from Wang's family friend, Lu Di, who provided US$90,000 and managed the company's finances. In 2009, DJI's components enabled a team to successfully pilot a drone around the peak of Mt. Everest.
In 2010, Wang hired a high school friend, Swift Xie Jia, to run the company's marketing. DJI began to cater more to drone hobbyists in markets outside of China. In 2011, Wang met Colin Guinn at a trade show, and the two of them founded DJI North America, a subsidiary company focusing on mass market drone sales. In 2013, conflict erupted between Guinn and Wang, with the latter shutting down the American subsidiary. Guinn sued DJI, with the case eventually being settled out of court.
In 2013, DJI released the first model of the Phantom drone, DJI's fully assembled drone model. Priced at $629, Phantom was an entry-level drone, featuring much more user-friendly experiences than other drones on the market at the time. The DJI Phantom was considered the first commercially successful recreational drone and a significant model in consumer drone history. With its affordability, accessibility, and user-friendly software, it quickly captured the consumer drone market from hobbyists, professionals, and introduced the modern aerial photography drone form factor to the general public.
In 2015, DJI eclipsed the success of the Phantom with the Phantom 3, whose even greater popularity was in part due to the addition of a built-in live-streaming camera. DJI was now the largest consumer drone company in the world, driving many of its competitors out of the market. 2015 also marked the beginning of DJI's RoboMaster Robotics Competition (), an annual international collegiate robot combat tournament held at the Shenzhen Bay Sports Centre. In November 2015, DJI announced the establishment of a strategic partnership with Hasselblad. In January 2019, DJI acquired a majority stake in Hasselblad.
In 2017, DJI won a Technology and Engineering Emmy Award for its camera drone technology, which was used in the filming of various television shows including The Amazing Race, American Ninja Warrior, Better Call Saul, and Game of Thrones. That same year, Wang became Asia's youngest tech billionaire, and the world's first drone billionaire. Also in 2017, DJI signed a strategic cooperation agreement to provide surveillance drones for use by the Chinese police in Xinjiang.
On June 5, 2018, police body cam and Taser maker Axon announced a partnership with DJI to sell surveillance drones to US police departments. As of 2020, DJI products were also widely used by US police and fire departments, with about 90% of drones used by public safety agencies originated from DJI. On January 21, 2019, DJI announced that an internal probe had uncovered "extensive" fraud by some employees who "inflated the costs of parts and materials for certain products for personal financial gain." DJI estimated the cost of the fraud at "up to CN¥1 billion" (US$147 million), but maintained that the company "did not incur a full-year loss in 2018."
In January 2020, the United States Department of the Interior announced that it would be grounding around 800 drones, which it had been using for wildlife conservation and infrastructure monitoring purposes. By March 2020, DJI had retained 77% of the US market share for consumer drones, with no other company holding more than 4%. In 2020, DJI drones were being used by many countries around the world to combat the Coronavirus. In China, DJI drones were used by the police force to remind people to wear masks. In other countries, such as Morocco and Saudi Arabia, their drones were used to disinfect urban areas and monitor human temperatures in order to contain the spread of the Coronavirus.
In June 2022, Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) accepted a probe into the validity of Textron's patent, as Textron accused DJI of violating its patent regarding aircraft flight control systems for relative positioning to target vehicles and automatic hovering. In April 2023, a US jury found that DJI's drones with automatic hovering capabilities violated Textron's. The federal court ordered DJI to pay $279 million in damages. In a separate legal battle, DJI challenged the Textron patent as invalid on the grounds of obviousness, cited prior art, but PTAB denied the probe request.
In 2024, DJI began to produce electric bicycle motors, diversifying product lines. In 2025, DJI introduced its first robot vacuum cleaner, the DJI Romo. About 7000 Romo vacuum cleaners were hacked by a Spain-based French engineer Sammy Azdoufal in early2026 as he tried to use his PlayStation Gamepad to control his own vacuum cleaner. DJI later thanked Azdoufal on X for reporting the vulnerability; in March 2026, The Verge reported that the company had paid him $30,000 for one of his findings. In February 2026, DJI sued the United States government to challenge an import ban on its drones, arguing the restrictions were unlawful and would harm U.S. businesses and consumers reliant on its technology.
Corporate structure In 2018, DJI raised roughly $1 billion in funds in preparation for an envisioned IPO on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. As of July 2020, these rumors persisted with no indication that an IPO was forthcoming. The company had previously raised $500 million in a 2015 funding round from investors including state-owned New China Life Insurance, GIC, and New Horizon Capital, the latter being co-founded by the son of China's former premier minister, Wen Jiabao. DJI has also received investment from Shanghai Venture Capital Co., SDIC Unity Capital, owned by the State Development and Investment Corporation, and China Chengtong Holdings Group, owned by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council. DJI denies they are a state-owned company, citing state-affiliated investor counts less than six percent of the company ownership and with less than 1% voting rights. DJI counts roughly 14,000 employees and has 17 offices internationally. The company is known for having a very difficult hiring process as well as an extremely competitive internal culture where teams are often pitted against each other to design better products. DJI's factories in Shenzhen include sophisticated automated assembly lines. Many of the components for these assembly lines are built in-house.
Products Flight controller Model A2 Naza V2 Wookong-M Naza-M Lite Number of motors supported 4–8 4–8 4–8 4–6 Has built-in receiver yes (2.4 GHz) no no no Hovering accuracy (m) vertical: ±0.5m / horizontal: ±1.5m vertical: ±0.8m / horizontal: ±2.5m vertical: ±0.5m / horizontal: ±2m vertical: ±0.8m / horizontal: ±2.5m Motor-rotor configuration quad-rotor: +4,X4; hex-rotor: +6,X6,Y6,Rev Y6; octo-rotor: +8,X8,V8 quad-rotor: I4, X4; hex-rotor: I6, X6, IY6, Y6; octo-rotor: I8,V8,X8 quad-rotor: +4,X4; hex-rotor: +6,X6,Y6,Rev Y6; octo-rotor: +8,X8,V8 quad-rotor I4, X4; hex-rotor I6, X6, IY6, Y6
Modules
Module Lightbridge PMU (A2, Wookong, Naza V2, Naza Lite) iOSD MARK II iOSD mini BTU Type (Purpose) Video Downlink Power Management On-Screen Display On-Screen Display Bluetooth Link Works With A2, Wookong-M, Naza V2 A2, Wookong-M, Naza V2, Naza-M Lite A2, Wookong-M, Naza V2 A2, Wookong-M, Naza V2 Naza V2 Interface CAN Bus CAN Bus, Battery Connection CAN Bus CAN Bus CAN Bus Battery Requirements 4S-6S Lipo 4S-12S Lipo 4S Lipo and Shared Flight Controller Power 2S Lipo and Shared Flight Controller Power Shared Flight Controller Power
Camera drones
Flame Wheel The Flame Wheel (风火轮) series are multirotor platforms for aerial photography. As of 2016, there is the hexacopter F550 and the quadcopters F330 and F450. The most recent is the ARF KIT.
Model Flame Wheel F330 Flame Wheel F450 Flame Wheel F550 Diagonal wheelbase (cm) 33 45 69 Frame weight (g) 156 282 478 Take-off weight (g) 600–1250 800–1600 1200–2400
Phantom
The Phantom (精灵) series has evolved to integrate flight programming with a camera, Wi-Fi or Lightbridge connectivity, and the pilot's mobile device. Phantoms are made for aerial cinematography and photography applications, but they are also used for recreational purposes.
Spark
Released in May 2017, the Spark (晓) features a 12-megapixel camera stabilized mechanically by a 2-axis gimbal. The Spark also carries an advanced infrared 3D camera that helps the drone detect obstacles in front of it as well as facilitate hand-gesture control. In addition to a smartphone app with a virtual controller, a physical controller can also be bought. There have been multiple complaints that the drone switches off and falls while flying. DJI responded to this by releasing a mandatory battery firmware update in August 2017.
Mavic
The Mavic (御) series currently includes Mavic Pro, Mavic Pro Platinum, Mavic Air, Mavic Air 2, Air 2S, Mavic 2 Pro, Mavic 2 Zoom, Mavic 2 Enterprise, Mavic 2 Enterprise Advanced, Mavic 3, Mavic 3 Cine, Mavic 3 Pro, Mavic 3 Pro Cine, Mavic 3 Classic, Mavic Mini, Mini SE, Mini 2, Mini 3, Mini 3 Pro, and Mini 4 Pro. The release of the Mavic Air 2 was not without controversy, however, as DJI announced that a key safety feature, AirSense (ADS-B), would not be available on models outside the US. Shortages on components and complexities of production owing to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis at the time were blamed. Starting with the Mini 2, the Mavic name was dropped from most of the new models, such as the Air 2S and the Mini SE. DJI released the Air 2S on April 15, 2021.