Baidu Forecasts AI Revenue Growth Despite US Chip Curbs

The tech giant expects its stockpile of advanced AI chips to support the development of its Ernie large language model for the next two years.

Baidu, the Chinese tech giant, has forecasted growth in AI revenues and a limited short-term impact from US chip curbs, stating it has a stockpile of advanced AI chips to soften the impact.
Baidu's CEO, Robin Li Yanhong, expects the company to have enough AI chips to continue developing its Ernie large language model (LLM) for the next two years, despite the restrictions on chip exports to China.
US sanctions on exports of advanced AI chips to China by key companies like Nvidia could impact the pace of AI development in China, leading to a consolidation of Chinese AI companies around leading LLMs.
Baidu's Ernie Bot ecosystem, a significant focus of the company, has amassed 70 million users three months into its public roll-out, handling tens of millions of queries daily.
Baidu's revenue for the September quarter was 34.45 billion yuan (US$4.7 billion), up 6% from last year, slightly above estimates by analysts.