Chinese internet search giant Baidu on Tuesday reported a 50% increase in artificial intelligence-related revenue in the three months ended September from a year ago, which was the bright spot to an otherwise lacklustre financial quarter, reports the South China Morning Post. The Beijing-based company’s third-quarter revenue declined 7% year on year to RMB 31.2 billion ($4.4 billion), owing to sluggish demand in its advertising business, while its net loss hit RMB 11.2 billion on asset writedowns.
While its core advertising business struggled, the company said sales at its AI-related cloud infrastructure, applications and marketing services rose to RMB 10 billion, which laid “a solid foundation for sustainable long-term growth”, according to Baidu chief financial officer He Haijian.
This marked the first time that Baidu disclosed its AI businesses’ revenue growth in detail, which was expected to help investors get a better understanding of the scale of its AI operations and how investment in the technology was driving growth.