AI operations boot Baidu revenue through 2025

Chinese tech giant Baidu Inc reported on Tuesday that its total revenue reached 31.2 billion yuan ($4.38 billion) in the third quarter of this year, with artificial intelligence-powered businesses delivering robust revenue growth.

Revenue from Baidu's core businesses, including search engines, reached 24.7 billion yuan during the July-September period, while revenue from AI businesses grew over 50 percent year-on-year, laying a solid foundation for its sustainable long-term growth.

AI-powered cloud revenue rose 33 percent year-on-year in the third quarter, while revenue from AI applications reached 2.6 billion yuan, and AI marketing services revenue surged 262 percent on a yearly basis to 2.8 billion yuan.

Robin Li, co-founder and CEO of Baidu, said the AI Cloud business maintained solid growth momentum, driven by broadening enterprise adoption of AI products and solutions, adding that the company will continue pioneering AI innovations that create substantial value for users, enterprises and society.

Li also noted that the company's autonomous ride-hailing service Apollo Go accelerated the scaling of its fully driverless operations and kept advancing global expansion, including entry into Switzerland.

Apollo Go provided 3.1 million fully driverless operational rides in the third quarter, up 212 percent year-on-year. The cumulative rides provided to the public by Apollo Go surpassed 17 million.

As of October, Apollo Go's global footprint covered 22 cities. It established a strategic partnership with PostBus, the leading public transport operator in Switzerland, to launch an on-demand autonomous mobility service.

In Abu Dhabi, Apollo Go expanded its local partnerships, while receiving permits for fully driverless commercial operations.