Baidu Posts Strong Q1 2025 Results with AI and Autonomous Driving Driving Growth

On May 21, Baidu Group released its financial results for the first quarter of 2025, reporting a total revenue of RMB 32.5 billion, marking a 7% year-over-year increase. Net profit attributable to Baidu Core reached RMB 7.63 billion, reflecting a notable 48% growth compared to the same period last year.

A key driver of this performance was Baidu’s Intelligent Cloud business, which recorded a 42% year-over-year increase in revenue. AI-related income within this segment achieved triple-digit growth, and the cloud business now reports an operating profit margin exceeding 10%. During the quarter, Baidu Intelligent Cloud also led the domestic market in both the number and total value of awarded AI large model contracts.

Baidu’s autonomous driving initiative, Apollo Go, continued to expand internationally. The company entered key Middle Eastern markets, including Dubai and Abu Dhabi, and began conducting public road tests in these locations. This marks Baidu’s first deployment of autonomous driving services outside of China. Further expansion is underway, with plans targeting Switzerland and Turkey. Apollo Go also launched the world’s first autonomous vehicle rental service in partnership with CAR Inc.

In Q1 2025, Apollo Go operated in 15 cities with over 1,000 fully driverless vehicles. The service provided more than 1.4 million rides during the quarter, representing a 75% increase year-over-year, and has delivered over 11 million rides globally to date. Cost efficiency remains a competitive strength: Baidu’s sixth-generation autonomous vehicle costs RMB 204,600, significantly lower than comparable models from global peers.

Baidu also advanced in autonomous driving technology, releasing Apollo ADFM — a Level 4 end-to-end autonomous driving model. With a test mileage exceeding 130 million kilometers, the model demonstrates a traffic accident rate only 1/14 that of human drivers. In recognition of its innovation, Apollo Go received the Gold Medal for Best New Product in the autonomous vehicle category at the Edison Awards.

On the AI front, Baidu maintains a self-developed, full-stack technology framework that spans infrastructure, open-source frameworks, large models under the Wenxin series, and application layers. In April, the company completed the construction of a fully self-developed 30,000-card AI cluster capable of supporting simultaneous training of multiple 100-billion-parameter models and enabling fine-tuning for 1,000 clients.

The scale and adoption of AI in China are increasing rapidly. In Q1 2025 alone, 505 large-model-related bidding projects were awarded, with a total value of RMB 2.467 billion—nearly nine times higher than the same period last year. Baidu secured 19 of these projects, valued at RMB 450 million, ranking first among general-purpose AI vendors. Most of Baidu’s projects were awarded by central state-owned enterprises in the energy and financial sectors, including clients such as China Merchants Group, China Aneng Group, and China Merchants Bank.

Baidu’s Wenxin large models also saw significant updates during the quarter. The company released four new models, including Wenxin 4.5 and Wenxin X1 in March, followed by Wenxin 4.5 Turbo and Wenxin X1 Turbo in April. Wenxin X1 Turbo delivered improved performance in reasoning, logic, and multimodal capabilities while reducing costs by 50%. Development of next-generation Wenxin models is already underway.

AI integration into Baidu’s applications also accelerated. In mobile search, AI now generates 35% of results, up from 22% in January. The use of digital humans and video content has grown rapidly, with digital human video production increasing over 30 times since January. In Q1, AI agents helped clients increase revenue by 30 times year-over-year.

This growth trajectory has attracted significant attention from global investors. During Q1 2025, Bridgewater Associates increased its holdings in Baidu from 200,000 shares to nearly 2.1 million shares, a more than tenfold increase. Fidelity Investments expanded its stake from 335,000 shares to 2.57 million. ARK Invest, led by Cathie Wood, also doubled its holdings by mid-May. Appaloosa Management, under David Tepper, increased its allocation to Baidu as well, making Chinese equities around 20% of its portfolio.

As the demand for computing power, cloud services, and AI infrastructure continues to rise, Baidu’s strategic focus on AI and autonomous driving positions it strongly in both domestic and international markets.