Baidu AI becomes core growth engine as cloud revenue surges 79% despite profit slide

Baidu Says AI Is Now Its Core Growth Engine - Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU)

Baidu Earnings Beat Offsets Revenue Miss The company reported first-quarter revenue of $4.65 billion (32.08 billion yuan), down 1.2% year over year and slightly below analyst estimates of $4.66 billion. Adjusted earnings came in at $1.75 per American depositary share, topping consensus estimates of $1.69. AI Cloud And Marketing Businesses Drive Growth CEO Robin Li said AI has become the company's primary growth engine after Baidu's core AI-powered business accounted for more than half of Baidu General Business revenue for the first time. "In Q1, our Core AI-powered Business exceeded half of Baidu General Business revenue for the first time, marking a clear signal that AI has become the core driver of Baidu," he said. Revenue from AI Cloud Infrastructure climbed 79% year over year to 8.8 billion yuan in the quarter, while GPU cloud revenue surged 184%. AI-native marketing services revenue increased 36% to 2.3 billion yuan. Baidu App's MAUs reached 655 million in March 2026. Revenue from AI Applications was RMB 2.5 billion in the first quarter of 2026, approximately flat year over year. Apollo Go Autonomous Driving Expansion Accelerates The company's autonomous driving business also continued expanding. Apollo Go completed 3.2 million fully driverless rides during the quarter, up more than 120% year over year. Cumulative rides surpassed 22 million by April 2026. iQIYI Revenue Declines During Quarter Revenue from streaming platform iQIYI, Inc. (NASDAQ:IQ) declined 13% year over year to 6.2 billion yuan, missing analyst expectations. Operating Expenses Improve Amid Margin Pressure Operating expenses improved during the quarter. Selling, general, and administrative expenses fell nearly 17% year over year to $712 million, primarily due to lower expected credit losses and reduced personnel costs. Research and development expenses declined 3.6% to $635 million. Baidu's adjusted EBITDA margin narrowed to 19% from 22% a year earlier. Cash Position And Free Cash Flow Update As of March 31, 2026, the company held $40.49 billion in total cash and investments. However, free cash flow usage totaled $470 million during the quarter. CEO Highlights AI Demand And Qianfan Adoption CEO Robin Li said enterprise demand for AI training and inference workloads continues to accelerate across industries, including gaming, financial services, manufacturing, and autonomous driving. Li also highlighted growing adoption of Baidu's Qianfan MaaS platform, which now supports models beyond ERNIE, including DeepSeek, MiniMax, Kimi, and Zhipu AI. He said daily average token consumption from external customers increased nearly sevenfold year over year in March. Global Expansion Plans For Apollo GoBaidu Stock Price Action BIDU Price Action: Baidu shares were up 1.32% at $137.11 at the time of publication on Monday, according to Benzinga Pro data. Image via Shutterstock Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs To add Benzinga News as your preferred source on Google, click here.

Baidu beats Q1 revenue estimates as AI cloud surge offsets ad slump

STORY: Baidu beat market estimates for quarterly revenue on Monday. The Chinese tech giant saw strong demand for its cloud computing services. And that helped offset ongoing weakness in its advertising business. Tech firms in China have seen business improve due to enterprise adoption of AI. It's raised demand for cloud computing capacity needed to run AI workloads. Baidu - which is China's largest search engine operator - has scored big from its strength in cloud demand. Revenue from Baidu's core AI-powered business jumped just under 50% to $2 billion. That made up more than half the company's general business revenue. The online advertising business reported total revenue of $1.8 billion - well down from a year earlier. Companies have cut back spending on marketing in a challenging domestic economy. China has seen a long slump in its property market and weak consumer demand. Total revenue in the first quarter ended March stood at $4.7 billion - just ahead of analyst estimates. Investors liked what they heard and the company's U.S.-listed shares rose more than 3% in premarket trading.

Baidu's Profit Slides Again Amid Slow AI Payoff -- Update

Baidu recorded another sharp profit drop and a fourth straight quarter of revenue declines as China's dominant search-engine operator continues to try to reinvent itself as an AI company. The Beijing-based company, once called "China's Google," has been investing heavily in artificial intelligence, self-driving cars and chip development as its traditional advertising business slumps. The pivot is slowly translating through to earnings as the company--at one time considered on par with China's top technology titans--looks to catch up in the AI race. Baidu's net profit continued to decline in the first quarter, falling 55% from a year earlier to 3.45 billion yuan, equivalent to $506.6 million. Revenue slipped 1.1% to 32.08 billion yuan in the three months ended March. Both net profit and revenue came in slightly ahead of analysts' estimates. Its core AI-related business powered higher, generating nearly 50% revenue growth--a result that could underpin hopes of Baidu's AI ventures offsetting weakness in other parts of the company. Revenue from the company's AI-related business exceeded half of its general business revenue for the first time during the quarter, which co-founder and Chief Executive Robin Li said was "a clear signal that AI has become the core driver of Baidu." The company's AI cloud infrastructure segment posted revenue growth of 79%. Revenue from graphics-processing unit cloud services soared more than 180%. Apollo Go, its autonomous ride-hailing service, made 3.2 million driverless operational rides during the quarter. Investors' sentiment toward Baidu has picked up in recent months, after souring in the first quarter in part due to a major setback in its Apollo Go robotaxi business and broader risk-off sentiment. General enthusiasm about AI and progress toward the listing of its chip unit, Kunlunxin Technology, have sent the company's shares in Hong Kong about 27% higher so far this quarter, while its American depositary receipts have gained more than 20%. Baidu's chief financial officer, He Haijian, said Monday that operating cash flow remained positive in the first quarter, reflecting the continued improvement in the company's operating efficiency and overall business health. Nasdaq-listed Baidu was 3.5% higher in premarket trading.