Baidu Q1 Revenue RMB32.1B, Net Profit Down 55%, AI Share Hits 52%

In the first quarter of 2026, Baidu's total revenue reached RMB32.1 billion, a slight year-on-year decline of 1.16%. Net profit attributable to shareholders was RMB3.445 billion, down 55.36% year on year. AI business revenue accounted for 52% of Baidu's general business revenue, up from 43% in the fourth quarter of 2025.

Within the AI segment, intelligent cloud revenue rose 79% year on year to RMB8.8 billion, with GPU cloud revenue surging 184%. AI-native marketing services revenue grew 36% to RMB2.3 billion. Apollo Go provided 3.2 million fully driverless rides in the first quarter, with total orders up more than 120% year on year. As of April 2026, Apollo Go had accumulated over 22 million orders globally, operating in 27 cities, including major Chinese cities as well as Dubai and Seoul. Baidu has achieved per-vehicle breakeven in its largest domestic operating city.

In traditional businesses, online marketing services revenue fell 22% year on year to RMB12.6 billion, accounting for 48% of general business revenue. Core search and information feed advertising revenue declined 29% to RMB10.2 billion. Baidu App monthly active users dropped to 655 million in March 2026, down from a peak of 708 million in the third quarter of 2025. According to StatCounter, Baidu's share of the Chinese search market, which remained above 70% from 2017 to 2022, declined from 2023 onward to 44.64% by April 2026. QuestMobile data as of June 2025 ranked Baidu ninth in media position index in China's internet advertising market.

Kunlunxin initiated its STAR Market IPO tutoring process on May 7, 2026, after having submitted a confidential listing application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in January 2026, forming a dual A+H listing path. Multiple media reports indicated a target valuation of approximately USD50 billion for Kunlunxin's Hong Kong IPO.

Over the past decade, Baidu has invested more than RMB180 billion cumulatively in research and development, holding 27,000 global AI patents and ranking first in China for AI patents for seven consecutive years. In the first quarter of 2026, Baidu's cost of sales rose 12% year on year to RMB19.6 billion, mainly due to increased intelligent cloud-related costs.

On the consumer AI front, Baidu released ERNIE Bot in March 2023. QuestMobile data for the first quarter of 2026 showed that the ERNIE app ranked outside the top ten among AI-native applications.