Baidu (NASDAQ: BIDU) shares surged 5.05% in pre-market trading on Wednesday following the release of its impressive first-quarter 2025 financial results. The Chinese tech giant reported better-than-expected earnings and revenue, driven by strong growth in its artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud businesses.
The company's total revenue for Q1 reached 32.45 billion yuan ($4.47 billion), representing a 3% increase year-over-year and surpassing analyst expectations of 30.9 billion yuan. Notably, Baidu's AI Cloud revenue skyrocketed 42% compared to the same period last year, now accounting for 26% of Baidu Core revenue. This robust growth in AI-related services underscores the company's successful pivot towards advanced technologies and its strong position in the rapidly evolving AI market.
Robin Li, Co-founder and CEO of Baidu, highlighted the company's progress in autonomous driving, stating, "We also achieved a pivotal milestone in our robotaxi business, as Apollo Go expanded internationally by entering Dubai and Abu Dhabi, reinforcing our commitment to bringing safe, comfortable, and affordable autonomous ride-hailing services to global markets." This expansion of Baidu's autonomous driving technology into international markets signals potential for significant future growth and diversification of revenue streams.
Furthermore, Baidu announced plans to open-source its ERNIE 4.5 AI model on June 30th, demonstrating the company's confidence in its AI capabilities and its commitment to fostering innovation in the field. This move, coupled with the acceleration of AI transformation across Baidu's mobile ecosystem, has likely contributed to investor optimism about the company's long-term growth prospects in the AI era.
