Artificial Intelligence · Profile from AI Research Companion
Baidu
The Beijing search company founded by Robin Li (Li Yanhong) in 2000 that became China's dominant search engine and then, from 2013, its earliest large-scale corporate bet on AI: a deep-learning institute, Andrew Ng as chief scientist, an open autonomous-driving platform (Apollo, 2017), its own AI chips (Kunlun, 2018) and the first major Chinese ChatGPT rival (Ernie Bot, March 2023). Baidu was first in almost every Chinese AI category and has rarely been the winner. Ernie trailed ByteDance's Doubao, DeepSeek and Alibaba's Qwen in users and developer adoption; its search advertising, still the main source of profit, shrank for several quarters in 2025–26 (online marketing revenue −19% in the June 2026 quarter, company). Its strongest assets in 2026 are less its chatbot than its infrastructure and robotaxis: AI cloud infrastructure revenue +50% and GPU cloud +283% in the June 2026 quarter, Apollo Go operating fully driverless in China, Dubai and Abu Dhabi and testing in London and Switzerland, and the Kunlunxin chip unit preparing a Hong Kong listing at a reported valuation as high as ~$50bn (June 2026, reported).
At a glance
- Founded
- January 2000, Beijing, by Robin Li and Eric Xu (Xu Yong)
- Headquarters
- Beijing (Haidian district)
- Ownership / structure
- Public: Nasdaq (BIDU, ADSs) since 5 August 2005; Hong Kong secondary listing (9888) since 23 March 2021. Robin Li controls a majority of voting power through high-vote shares (reported, verify current percentage). Cayman holding company with VIE structure
- Leadership (2026)
- Robin Li (co-founder, chairman and CEO); Rong Luo (CFO, verify current); Dou Shen (head of AI Cloud Group, verify); Haifeng Wang (CTO, head of the Ernie and deep-learning platform work); Wang Yunpeng (head of the Intelligent Driving Group, verify)
- Products
- Baidu Search and the Baidu app; Ernie (Wenxin) models, the Ernie assistant app (formerly Ernie Bot / Wenxiaoyan); AI Cloud (Qianfan model platform, GPU cloud, Kunlun-based clusters); PaddlePaddle deep-learning framework; Apollo Go robotaxis and Apollo self-driving software; Kunlunxin AI chips; Xiaodu smart devices; iQiyi (video, majority-owned)
- Scale
- Revenue RMB 129.1bn (~$18.46bn at ~7.0 RMB/$) in 2025, −3% (company); June 2026 quarter revenue ~RMB 31.3bn (−4%), of which online marketing RMB 13.1bn (−19%) and AI-powered business RMB 12.5bn (+25%), half of general business revenue (company, reported August 2026)
- AI cloud share
- ~9.4% of China's AI cloud market in 2025, third behind Alibaba (~38.1%) and Volcano Engine (~20.4%) (Omdia, May 2026); stronger in AI-application cloud services by some measures (IDC, reported)
- Signature moves (incl. failures)
- The early AI bet (Institute of Deep Learning 2013, Andrew Ng 2014); the Wei Zexi medical-ads scandal (2016); Apollo open platform (2017); Kunlun chips and Kunlunxin (2018–26); Apollo Go robotaxis (2019–26); Ernie Bot launch (2023); free and open-source Ernie (2025); Ernie 5.0 and the AI pivot of search (2025–26)
8 strategic moves analysed
Each one gets a full strategy file in the companion: context, the decision, the financing, what happened, and the lesson.
2013
Institute of Deep Learning and the Early AI Bet
Pivot / research launch (and talent hires)
2016
Wei Zexi Medical Ads Scandal
Regulatory action (and forced change to the ad model)
2017
Apollo Open Autonomous Driving Platform
Launch (open platform) and partnerships
2018
Kunlun Chips and Kunlunxin
Launch (in-house AI chip) and spin-off
2019
Apollo Go Robotaxi Economics
Launch (robotaxi service) and partnerships
2023
Ernie Bot Launch
Model release (chatbot launch)
2025
Ernie 5 and the AI Pivot of Search
Model release and pivot (rebuilding search and reporting around AI)
2025
Ernie Free and Open Source
Pricing and model release (closed to free and open weights)