Baidu exceeds revenue estimates on AI, cloud services strength

(Reuters) - Baidu Inc surpassed quarterly revenue estimates on Thursday as a resurgence of COVID-19 in China and accompanying restrictions drove up demand for its cloud and artificial intelligence products.

The company - Google’s equivalent in China - has expanded aggressively into cloud services, robotaxis and autonomous driving in recent years as competition rises for its core search platform and advertisement business.

It last month received permits to deploy robotaxis without humans in the driving seat on open Chinese roads for the first time.

Total revenue came in at 28.41 billion yuan ($4.22 billion) in the first quarter, compared with analysts’ average estimate of 27.82 billion yuan, according to IBES data from Refinitiv. 

Net loss attributable to Baidu fell to 885 million yuan, or 2.87 yuan per American Depository Share (ADS), in the quarter ended March 31, compared with a profit of 25.65 billion yuan, or 73.76 yuan per ADS, a year earlier.  

($1 = 6.7382 Chinese yuan renminbi)

(Reporting by Tiyashi Datta in Bengaluru; Editing by Aditya Soni)