China’s Baidu pulls in near $5bn revenue as AI turnover surges
Internet services giant Baidu pulled in nearly $5bn in revenue in its latest quarter, climbing past analyst forecasts, despite China’s ongoing technology crackdown.
Revenue jumped 13 per cent year on year to $4.95bn, while it secured $358m in operating income in the three months to September 30.
The Beijing-headquartered company expects to pull in around $4.81bn and $5.27bn in revenue in the next quarter, it said in a statement.
However, Baidu, which also specialises in artificial intelligence (AI), reported a net loss of $2.57bn in the period, plunging more than 2700 per cent from its second quarter loss of $583m.
Baidu’s US-listed shares, which have slumped 21 per cent this year, inched 1.54 per cent higher to $171.27.
AI growth
The losses come as Baidu bolsters its research and development by 35 per cent year on year, after pumping $957bn into the cause.
“Baidu is bringing innovation across the consumer, enterprise and public sector with our commitment to AI,” co-founder and CEO, Robin Li said.
“Our AI Cloud is helping businesses better serve customers and move faster with greater efficiency. We are building Baidu Apollo smart transportation and intelligent driving to smoothen traffic congestion, accelerate the move to EV and reduce traffic accidents.”
The web giant’s chief financial officer Rong Luo added that the revenue growth had been bolstered by Baidu’s AI Cloud.
“Baidu Core delivered another solid quarter, powered by our AI cloud revenue growing 73 per cent year over year,” Luo explained.
“With a diversified AI portfolio, including cloud services, smart transportation, smart devices, self-driving, smart EV and robotaxi, we are well positioned for long-term growth.”