Baidu, Inc. (BIDU)

Baidu, Inc. is a Cayman Islands-incorporated AI company with a strong internet foundation, founded in 2000 as a search engine business. Its stated mission is to make the complicated world simpler through technology. It has invested in AI since 2010 and says it is one of the few companies offering a full AI stack of four layers: cloud infrastructure, an in-house deep learning framework, foundation models, and applications. Its ERNIE family of foundation models, which includes ERNIE 4.5, ERNIE X1 and the omni-modal ERNIE 5.0, powers its conversational AI bot ERNIE Bot and its other products. Its ADSs trade on Nasdaq and its Class A ordinary shares trade on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

The business is divided into Baidu General and iQIYI. Baidu General, which is everything except iQIYI, contributed over 70% of revenue in 2023, 2024 and 2025. It has three key areas. Mobile Ecosystem is a portfolio of over a dozen apps, led by Baidu App, a search-plus-feed app with 679 million monthly active users in December 2025, along with ERNIE Bot, Haokan, Baidu Post, Baidu Health, Wiki, Knows and livestreaming. AI Cloud includes AI Cloud Infrastructure for enterprises and the public sector, and AI Applications such as Baidu Wenku and Baidu Drive. Intelligent Driving & Other Growth Initiatives includes the Apollo Go autonomous ride-hailing service and the DuerOS smart assistant and devices, including Xiaodu smart displays. iQIYI produces, aggregates and distributes long-form videos, mini and short dramas, and other videos, mostly original and licensed content. Baidu also owns the YY Live business, acquired from JOYY in 2025, and holds a minority stake in Du Xiaoman, the financial services business it largely divested in 2018.

Baidu earns most of its revenue from online marketing services sold to a diverse base of small and medium-sized enterprises in industries such as healthcare, retail, e-commerce, entertainment, online games, business services, life services and transportation. These are sold through third-party agents and a direct sales team, mainly as pay-for-performance (P4P) search and feed marketing charged per click. Baidu Union partners, including third-party websites and apps, extend the reach of this advertising and receive a share of the revenue. AI Cloud serves customers in manufacturing, the public sector, energy and utilities, financial services and internet/media. Apollo Go provides fully driverless rides in Chinese mainland cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Wuhan, Chengdu, Chongqing, Haikou and Sanya, and has expanded to 26 cities globally, including Hong Kong, Dubai and Abu Dhabi, with partnerships with Uber, Lyft and PostBus. More than 96% of 2025 group revenue came from Chinese mainland.

Baidu operates mainly in Chinese mainland through its wholly owned subsidiary Baidu Online and through the variable interest entity Baidu Netcom, which holds the licenses needed for its internet services. It relies on third-party content creators, MCNs and network partners, and it uses its own AI chip design and research. Its principal executive offices are at Baidu Campus, Shangdi 10th Street, Haidian District, Beijing.