Baidu’s Q3 revenue grows 13% as demand for AI cloud rises

Baidu, the Chinese search giant, posted a 13% year-on-year revenue growth for the quarter ended September 30 on the back of its strong AI cloud business. The company registered over US$4.9 billion in revenue for the quarter.

Baidu’s Silicon Valley AI Lab / Photo credit: Baidu

The company’s AI cloud revenue grew 73% year on year, according to its chief financial officer Rong Luo.

“Our AI Cloud is helping businesses better serve customers and move faster with greater efficiency,” said Robin Li, co-founder and CEO of Baidu.

The company’s operating losses widened by 63% to US$358 million during the quarter. The total loss for the period was at US$2.5 billion. “The net loss includes a non-cash, mark-to-market loss in long-term investments arising from quarterly fair-value adjustment,” said the company.

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For the fourth quarter of 2021, Baidu expects revenues to be between US$4.8 billion and US$5.3 billion, representing a growth rate of 2% to 12% from the previous year. It also says that the revenue of Baidu Core – which includes several of the company’s offerings such as the Baidu app, its AI businesses, and its cloud services – is expected to see a year-on-year growth of 5% to 16% in the same period.

The company is also building Baidu Apollo, its autonomous driving platform, to smoothen traffic congestion, accelerate the transition to electric vehicles, and reduce traffic accidents.