Baidu (BIDU)

Baidu, Inc., founded in 2000 and headquartered in Beijing, China, is a leading AI company with a strong internet foundation, best known as China’s dominant search engine. Its mission is to make the complicated world simpler through technology. The company has invested heavily in artificial intelligence since 2010, building a comprehensive full AI stack that includes cloud infrastructure, the PaddlePaddle deep learning framework, ERNIE foundation models, and various AI applications. This powers its core businesses, such as the Baidu App, online marketing services, AI cloud offerings, intelligent driving (including Apollo Go robotaxi services), and knowledge products like ERNIE Bot. Baidu operates in two main segments: Baidu General Business (which generates the majority of revenue through search, feed, cloud, and AI initiatives) and iQIYI (its online entertainment video streaming platform). Serving hundreds of millions of users, developers, and enterprises, Baidu continues to evolve from its search roots into a broader AI-driven technology powerhouse.