Baidu Expands Enterprise AI Cloud Services with Industry-Specific Agents

Chinese tech giant Baidu is doubling down on the enterprise cloud market by launching a suite of industry-specific AI agents designed to integrate AI deeply into business operations across key sectors such as energy, healthcare, transportation, and automotive.

Key Developments

• AI Cloud Growth: Baidu's AI cloud revenue surged 42% year-on-year to 6.7 billion yuan ($930 million) in Q1 2025, accounting for 26% of core revenue. Operating profit margins for the unit surpassed 10%.
• Chip Deployment: Baidu has deployed its Kunlun P800 AI chips in a 30,000-card cluster in Ningxia, powering large language model training. This follows the activation of a 10,000-card cluster in February 2025.
• Ernie Models: In March 2025, Baidu released Ernie 4.5 and X1, its latest large-scale pretraining and inference models. Upgraded versions (4.5 Turbo and X1 Turbo) were introduced by late April.

Industry Applications

Baidu's new AI agents are tailored for:

1. Transportation & Automotive: Partnering with automakers like Changan Auto (brand: Deepal) to develop intelligent in-car assistants for personalized entertainment and education.
2. Healthcare: AI-driven solutions for medical diagnostics and patient care.
3. Energy & Environmental Services: Optimizing resource management and sustainability initiatives.

Strategic Focus

• Enterprise Dominance: Baidu's executive VP Shen Dou emphasized that enterprise cloud services now drive most of its AI cloud growth.
• Cost Efficiency: Baidu claims its Ernie models outperform OpenAI’s GPT-4.5 at significantly lower costs.
• Market Penetration: AI products are already adopted by 65% of China’s state-owned enterprises.

Timeline

• February 2025: 10,000-card Kunlun P800 cluster activated.
• March 2025: Ernie 4.5 and X1 models released.
• April 2025: Cluster expanded to 30,000 cards; Turbo models launched.

Baidu’s aggressive expansion underscores its ambition to lead China’s AI-driven enterprise transformation, leveraging its fully self-developed tech stack to capture a growing market.