Baidu Announces First Quarter 2026 Results

BEIJING, May 18, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU and HKEX: 9888 (HKD Counter) and 89888 (RMB Counter)), ("Baidu" or the "Company"), a leading AI company with strong Internet foundation, today announced its unaudited financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2026.

"In Q1, our Core AI-powered Business exceeded half of Baidu General Business revenue for the first time, marking a clear signal that AI has become the core driver of Baidu. AI Cloud Infra delivered exceptional momentum, powered by surging enterprise demand and the differentiated full-stack AI capabilities we have built over the years. Our AI Applications continued to gain traction across enterprises and individuals alike, further validating the commercial potential of our AI innovations. Meanwhile, Apollo Go sustained triple-digit growth in fully driverless rides while advancing its international expansion," said Robin Li, Co-founder and CEO of Baidu. "We see AI driving even greater value for Baidu in the quarters ahead."

"A few highlights from Q1: Revenue from Baidu Core AI-powered Business^[1] exceeded RMB 13.6 billion, up 49% year over year. Total revenue of Baidu General Business grew 2% year over year, returning to positive growth. Non-GAAP^[2] operating income of Baidu General Business increased 39% quarter over quarter to RMB 4.0 billion. Operating cash flow for Baidu remained positive at RMB 2.7 billion in Q1, reflecting continued improvement in our operating efficiency and overall business health." said Haijian He, CFO of Baidu.

Operational Highlights^[1]

Corporate

• Baidu ranked second globally in the Automotive category on Fast Company's 2026 Most Innovative Companies list, which recognized Apollo Go alongside Waymo as one of the world's leading robotaxi services. Fast Company highlighted Apollo Go as "leading the charge toward large-scale deployment in the global robotaxi industry."
• Baidu launched ERNIE 5.1 in May 2026, featuring stronger text capabilities, a more compact model size and enhanced reasoning capabilities. Recently on LMArena, ERNIE 5.1 ranked first among Chinese models on the text leaderboard and topped the LMArena search leaderboard among Chinese models, ranking fourth globally.
• Baidu released its annual ESG Report on May 11, 2026, which details Baidu's latest ESG policies and sustainability initiatives (http://esg.baidu.com/Uploads/Baidu_2025_ESG_Report.pdf).
• Baidu returned US$172 million to shareholders in Q1 2026 through the repurchases of its shares under the current share repurchase program.

Baidu Core AI-powered Business

AI Cloud Infra

• Revenue from AI Cloud Infra was RMB 8.8 billion in the first quarter of 2026, up 79% year over year.
• Revenue from GPU Cloud^[3] increased by 184% year over year in the first quarter of 2026.

AI Applications

• Revenue from AI Applications was RMB 2.5 billion in the first quarter of 2026, approximately flat year over year.
• Baidu launched DuMate, its general-purpose agent for everyday productivity, in March 2026, which autonomously executes complex, multi-step workflows across applications and files end-to-end.
• Baidu launched Miaoda 3.0, its vibe coding platform, at Baidu Create 2026, introducing enterprise and mobile versions and enabling the generation of standalone applications.
• Baidu launched Famou Agent 2.0, its self-evolving agent, at Baidu Create 2026. Famou Agent 2.0 has achieved state-of-the-art performance on MLE-Bench, a leading machine learning engineering benchmark, setting a new SOTA record.
• Baidu Wenku and Baidu Drive launched GenFlow 4.0 in April 2026, enhancing its agent capabilities for more efficient productivity workflows.

Robotaxi

• In the first quarter of 2026, Apollo Go, Baidu's autonomous ride-hailing service, delivered 3.2 million fully driverless operational rides with weekly rides peaking at over 350,000 in March. Total rides increased by over 120% year over year. As of April 2026, cumulative rides provided to the public by Apollo Go exceeded 22 million.
• Apollo Go continued to advance its global expansion. In Europe, Apollo Go is on track to commence open-road testing in Switzerland, and is expected to begin testing in London with Uber and Lyft soon. In the Middle East, Apollo Go's fully driverless operations are running across multiple zones in Dubai, with the Apollo Go App launched in March.
• As of May 2026, Apollo Go's global footprint reached 27 cities. To date, Apollo Go fleets have accumulated over 330 million autonomous kilometers, including over 220 million fully driverless autonomous kilometers, with an outstanding safety record.

AI-native Marketing Services

• Revenue from AI-native marketing services reached RMB 2.3 billion in the first quarter of 2026, up 36% year over year.
• Baidu App's MAUs reached 655 million in March 2026.

The following table sets forth selected revenue highlights for our Baidu Core AI-powered Business for the periods indicated:

First Quarter 2026 Financial Results for Baidu^[2],[4]

Financial highlights

The following table sets forth revenue highlights for Baidu General Business:

Revenue was RMB32.1 billion ($4.65 billion), decreasing 2% quarter over quarter. Revenue from Baidu General Business was RMB26.0 billion ($3.77 billion), remaining flat quarter over quarter, among which the increase in others was primarily driven by the growth of AI Cloud business. Revenue from iQIYI was RMB6.2 billion ($903 million), decreasing 8% quarter over quarter.

Cost of revenue was RMB19.6 billion ($2.84 billion), increasing 7% quarter over quarter, primarily due to an increase in costs related to AI Cloud business, partially offset by decreases in content costs and traffic acquisition costs.

Selling, general and administrative expenses were RMB4.9 billion ($712 million), decreasing 34% quarter over quarter, primarily due to decreases in expected credit losses and personnel-related expenses.

Research and development expenses were RMB4.4 billion ($635 million), decreasing 22% quarter over quarter, primarily due to a decrease in personnel-related expenses.

Operating income was RMB3.2 billion ($463 million) and operating margin was 10%. Non-GAAP operating income was RMB3.8 billion ($552 million) and non-GAAP operating margin was 12%.

Total other income, net was RMB626 million ($91 million), compared to RMB1.2 billion last quarter.

Income tax expense was RMB528 million ($76 million), compared to RMB1.0 billion last quarter.

Net income attributable to Baidu was RMB3.4 billion ($499 million), net margin for Baidu was 11% and diluted earnings per ADS was RMB8.76 ($1.27). Non-GAAP net income attributable to Baidu was RMB4.3 billion ($628 million), non-GAAP net margin for Baidu was 14% and non-GAAP diluted earnings per ADS was RMB12.06 ($1.75).

Adjusted EBITDA was RMB6.0 billion ($863 million) and adjusted EBITDA margin was 19%.

We define total cash and investments as cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash, short-term investments, net, long-term time deposits and held-to-maturity investments, and adjusted long-term investments. As of March 31, 2026, total cash and investments were RMB279.3 billion ($40.49 billion). Operating cash flow was RMB2.7 billion ($387 million).

For detailed financial information of Baidu General Business and iQIYI, please see the appended financial tables.

Conference Call Information

Baidu's management will hold an earnings conference call at 8:00 AM on May 18, 2026, U.S. Eastern Time (8:00 PM on May 18, 2026, Beijing Time).

Please register in advance of the conference call using the link provided below. It will automatically direct you to the registration page of "Baidu Inc. Q1 2026 Earnings Conference Call". Please follow the steps to enter your registration details, then click "Register". Upon registering, you will then be provided with the dial-in number, the passcode, and your unique access PIN. This information will also be emailed to you as a calendar invite.

For pre-registration, please click:
https://s1.c-conf.com/diamondpass/10054331-iu876y.html

In the 10 minutes prior to the call start time, you may use the conference access information (including dial-in number(s), the passcode and unique access PIN) provided in the calendar invite that you have received following your pre-registration.

Additionally, a live and archived webcast of this conference call will be available at https://ir.baidu.com.

About Baidu

Founded in 2000, Baidu's mission is to make the complicated world simpler through technology. Baidu is a leading AI company with strong Internet foundation, trading on NASDAQ under "BIDU" and HKEX under "9888". One Baidu ADS represents eight Class A ordinary shares.

Safe Harbor Statement

This announcement contains forward-looking statements. These statements are made under the "safe harbor" provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as "will," "expects," "anticipates," "future," "intends," "plans," "believes," "estimates," "confident" and similar statements. Among other things, Baidu's and other parties' strategic and operational plans, contain forward-looking statements. Baidu may also make written or oral forward-looking statements in its periodic reports to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, in announcements made on the website of The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited (the "Hong Kong Stock Exchange"), in its annual report to shareholders, in press releases and other written materials and in oral statements made by its officers, directors or employees to third parties. Statements that are not historical facts, including but not limited to statements about Baidu's beliefs and expectations, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. A number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement, including but not limited to the following: Baidu's growth strategies; its future business development, including development of new products and services; its ability to attract and retain users and customers; competition in the Chinese Internet search and newsfeed market; competition for online marketing customers; changes in the Company's revenues and certain cost or expense items as a percentage of its revenues; the outcome of ongoing, or any future, litigation or arbitration, including those relating to intellectual property rights; the expected growth of the Chinese-language Internet search and newsfeed market and the number of Internet and broadband users in China; Chinese governmental policies relating to the Internet and Internet search providers, and general economic conditions in China and elsewhere. Further information regarding these and other risks is included in the Company's annual report on Form 20-F and other documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and announcements on the website of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Baidu does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement, except as required under applicable law. All information provided in this press release and in the attachments is as of the date of the press release, and Baidu undertakes no duty to update such information, except as required under applicable law.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

To supplement Baidu's consolidated financial results presented in accordance with GAAP, Baidu uses the following non-GAAP financial measures: non-GAAP operating income, non-GAAP operating margin, non-GAAP net income attributable to Baidu, non-GAAP net margin, non-GAAP diluted earnings per ADS, adjusted EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA margin, adjusted long-term investments and free cash flow. The presentation of these non-GAAP financial measures is not intended to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for the financial information prepared and presented in accordance with GAAP.

Baidu believes that these non-GAAP financial measures provide meaningful supplemental information regarding its performance and liquidity by excluding certain items that may not be indicative of its recurring core business operating results, such as operating performance excluding non-cash charges or non-operating in nature. The Company believes that both management and investors benefit from referring to these non-GAAP financial measures in assessing its performance and when planning and forecasting future periods. These non-GAAP financial measures also facilitate management's internal comparisons to Baidu's historical performance and liquidity. The Company believes these non-GAAP financial measures are useful to investors in allowing for greater transparency with respect to supplemental information used by management in its financial and operational decision making. A limitation of using these non-GAAP financial measures is that these non-GAAP measures exclude certain items that have been and will continue to be for the foreseeable future a significant component in the Company's results of operations. These non-GAAP financial measures presented here may not be comparable to similarly titled measures presented by other companies. Other companies may calculate similarly titled measures differently, limiting their usefulness as comparative measures to the Company's data.

Non-GAAP operating income represents operating income excluding share-based compensation expenses, amortization and impairment of intangible assets resulting from business combinations, and one-time employee severance costs.

Non-GAAP net income attributable to Baidu represents net income attributable to Baidu excluding share-based compensation expenses, amortization and impairment of intangible assets resulting from business combinations, one-time employee severance costs, disposal gain or loss, impairment of long-term investments, and fair value gain or loss of long-term investments and exchangeable bonds, adjusted for related income tax effects. Baidu's share of equity method investments for these non-GAAP reconciling items, amortization and impairment of intangible assets not on the investees' books, accretion of their redeemable non-controlling interests, and the gain or loss associated with the issuance of shares by the investees at a price higher or lower than the carrying value per share, adjusted for related income tax effects, are also excluded.

Non-GAAP diluted earnings per ADS represents diluted earnings per ADS calculated by dividing non-GAAP net income attributable to Baidu, by the weighted average number of ordinary shares expressed in ADS. Adjusted EBITDA represents non-GAAP operating income excluding depreciation of fixed assets, and amortization of intangible assets excluding those resulting from business combinations. Adjusted long-term investments represent long-term investments, net, with publicly listed equity method investments adjusted to fair value based on quoted market prices.

For more information on non-GAAP financial measures, please see the tables captioned "Reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures to the nearest comparable GAAP measure."

SOURCE Baidu, Inc.