Baidu posts 5th straight sales drop after AI lags rivals
Advertisers defected to short video and chatbot upstarts chipped away at query volumes.
A pedestrian walks past a Baidu AI Cloud advertisement featuring humanoid robots inside Shenzhen Bao’an International Airport on May 16, 2026, in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, China. The advertisement promotes Baidu AI Cloud's artificial intelligence and embodied AI technologies. Image: Getty Images
A pedestrian walks past a Baidu AI Cloud advertisement featuring humanoid robots inside Shenzhen Bao’an International Airport on May 16, 2026, in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, China. The advertisement promotes Baidu AI Cloud's artificial intelligence and embodied AI technologies. Image: Getty Images
