Baidu posted a 42% drop in profit for the fourth quarter of 2025, reports Caixin. The drop comes as its aggressive pivot toward AI is eating away at its core advertising business faster than it can generate new growth.
The Beijing-based search giant reported a 4.1% year-on-year decline in revenue to RMB 32.7 billion ($4.7 billion) for the fourth quarter of 2025, marking its second consecutive quarter of shrinking topline figures.
The results, says Caixin, underscore the double-edged nature of Baidu’s AI transition—while generative AI technologies are creating new opportunities in cloud computing and autonomous driving, they are simultaneously disrupting the traditional search advertising model, the company’s primary cash cow, without yet providing a sufficient financial buffer. For the full year 2025, revenue slid 3% to RMB 129.1 billion, while adjusted net profit tumbled 30% to RMB 18.9 billion.