Is Baidu, Inc. (BIDU) A Good Stock To Buy Now?
Yahoo Finance ·
Baidu, Inc. provides internet content, value-added telecommunication-based, internet map, and online audio and video services in the People's Republic of China. BIDU is positioned as a leading Chinese technology company with its Apollo Go robotaxi platform emerging as the largest autonomous mobility network, placing it at the forefront of the expanding robotaxi market. While Tesla has dominated investor imagination in autonomy, Baidu has already operationalized large-scale deployments across more than 20 cities, benefiting from China's policy tailwinds, including national strategic prioritization of autonomous driving. The robotaxi market is projected to grow at a CAGR of roughly 75%, with TAM estimates ranging from $75 billion by 2032 to $168 billion by 2035, and Goldman Sachs forecasting around 705,000 robotaxis in operation by 2030. Baidu's cost advantage, estimated at $27,500–$35,000 per vehicle through its JMC partnership for the RT6 platform, further strengthens scalability. Even under conservative assumptions of 18% market share and 20% operating margins, Baidu could generate over $6 billion in operating profit, more than doubling its current $2.5–$3 billion baseline. Combined with ERNIE's agentic AI capabilities for routing, logistics optimization, and contextual services, Baidu builds a vertically integrated autonomy and AI stack. Trading at 14–16x earnings and even lower on a net cash basis, Baidu offers asymmetric upside, where successful robotaxi scale and AI monetization could drive substantial re-rating, while downside is supported by cash-generative core search and AI businesses. Previously, we covered a bullish thesis on Baidu, Inc. (BIDU) by Alexandru Dragut in November 2024, which highlighted the company's AI Cloud expansion, ERNIE ecosystem, Apollo Go progress, and undervaluation. BIDU's stock price has appreciated by approximately 40.30% since our coverage. Momentum Financial shares a similar view but emphasizes on Apollo Go's robotaxi leadership and long-term earnings upside driven by autonomous mobility and AI monetization. Baidu, Inc. is not on our list of the 40 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds . As per our database, 50 hedge fund portfolios held BIDU at the end of the first quarter which was 57 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the risk and potential of BIDU as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than BIDU and that has 10,000% upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock .
DYAX Investor Sentiment
Bullish (Long) 59% · Bearish (Short) 41%
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