Baidu Announces Third Quarter 2025 Results

Baidu, Inc., a leading AI company with strong Internet foundation, today announced its unaudited financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2025.  

"In the third quarter, we demonstrated AI's transformative value across our portfolio. AI Cloud maintained solid growth momentum, driven by broadening enterprise adoption of our AI products and solutions. Apollo Go significantly accelerated the scaling of its fully driverless operations and kept advancing global expansion, including entry into Switzerland, all while maintaining industry-leading safety standards. In our Mobile Ecosystem, AI-native monetization products such as agents and digital humans delivered rapid revenue growth, showing strong long-term potential," said Robin Li, Co-founder and CEO of Baidu. "We will continue pioneering AI innovations that create substantial value for users, enterprises, and society, cementing our leadership in the AI era."  

"AI Cloud achieved healthy expansion in the third quarter, cushioning the impact from softness in our online marketing business," said Haijian He, CFO of Baidu. "Our strategic AI investments are yielding strong returns. Revenue from AI-powered businesses grew over 50% year-over-year to roughly RMB 10 billion in the third quarter of 2025, laying a solid foundation for sustainable long-term growth."

Operational Highlights 

Corporate  

• Baidu unveiled ERNIE 5.0, a native omni-modal foundation model, at Baidu World in November 2025. ERNIE 5.0 delivers strong performance across omni-modal understanding, creative writing, and instruction following. 

• Baidu received improved ESG evaluations from MSCI, S&P CSA, and Sustainalytics during the third quarter of 2025, reflecting continued progress in sustainability practices. 

• Baidu was named to Fortune's Change the World 2025 list, recognized for Apollo Go's safety record and positive social impact.

AI Cloud  

• Qianfan, Baidu's MaaS platform, was upgraded to be agent-centric, enhancing its model services and agent development capabilities to accelerate AI-native application development for enterprises. 

• In August 2025, Baidu Wenku and Baidu Drive jointly launched GenFlow, a general-purpose agent platform enabling users to complete productivity tasks through multi-agent collaboration and natural language interactions.

Intelligent Driving  

• Apollo Go, Baidu's autonomous ride-hailing service, provided 3.1 million fully driverless operational rides in the third quarter of 2025, with year-over-year growth accelerating to 212% from 148% last quarter. In October 2025, Apollo Go's weekly average fully driverless operational rides exceeded 250,000. As of November 2025, the cumulative rides provided to the public by Apollo Go surpassed 17 million. 

• Apollo Go continued to advance its global expansion. In Switzerland, Apollo Go established a strategic partnership with PostBus, the leading public transport operator to launch an on-demand autonomous mobility service. In Abu Dhabi, Apollo Go deepened local partnership and received fully driverless commercial operation permits. In Hong Kong, Apollo Go expanded its open-road testing zone to include Kowloon and Kwun Tong District. 

• As of October 2025, Apollo Go's global footprint covered 22 cities. In Chinese mainland, Apollo Go has achieved 100% fully driverless operations in all cities where it operates, including Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Wuhan, Chengdu, Chongqing, Haikou, Sanya, etc. To date, Apollo Go fleets have accumulated 240 million autonomous kilometers, including 140 million fully driverless autonomous kilometers, with an outstanding safety record.

Mobile Ecosystem  

• Baidu continued to advance the AI transformation of Baidu Search in the third quarter. In October 2025, roughly 70% of mobile search result pages contained AI-generated content. 

• In September 2025, Baidu App's MAUs reached 708 million, up 1% year over year. 

AI-powered Businesses (A new AI-native view to provide investors greater visibility into Baidu's AI portfolio)

Based on investor feedback, Baidu is introducing a new AI-native view this quarter that cuts across traditional business groups to better reflect valuation drivers within Baidu's current product portfolio. This view organizes Baidu's business according to the nature of its products and services, revealing a rich array of AI-powered assets company-wide. Going forward, Baidu will provide business updates through this AI-native view on an ongoing basis, while continuing to disclose results under the existing reporting methods.  

In the third quarter of 2025, Baidu is disclosing three categories that demonstrated significant revenue contribution:

• AI Cloud Infra – AI infrastructure and platform services within AI Cloud serving enterprises and the public sector. In the third quarter of 2025, revenue from AI Cloud Infra reached RMB 4.2 billion, up 33% year over year, with subscription-based revenue from AI accelerator infrastructure growing 128% year over year. 

• AI Applications – AI-native or AI-powered product offerings addressing specific use cases for individuals and enterprises, including our flagship software products such as Baidu Wenku, Baidu Drive, and Digital Employee. Most of Baidu's AI applications are based on sticky subscription models, delivering high-quality revenue. In the third quarter of 2025, revenue from AI Applications reached RMB 2.6 billion, increasing 6% year over year. 

• AI-native Marketing Services – AI-native online marketing products and services, including agents and digital humans. AI-native Marketing Services represent a second growth curve beyond Baidu's legacy business, gaining strong traction with customers seeking performance-driven AI-native solutions and willing to pay a premium for cutting-edge AI technologies that enhance productivity and marketing returns. In the third quarter of 2025, revenue from AI-native marketing services reached RMB 2.8 billion, increasing 262% year over year.

Third Quarter 2025 Financial Results

Total revenues were RMB31.2 billion ($4.38 billion), decreasing 7% year over year.  

• Revenue from Baidu Core was RMB24.7 billion ($3.46 billion), decreasing 7% year over year; online marketing revenue was RMB15.3 billion ($2.16 billion), decreasing 18% year over year, and non-online marketing revenue was RMB9.3 billion ($1.31 billion), up 21% year over year, primarily driven by the boost of AI Cloud business. 

• Revenue from iQIYI was RMB6.7 billion ($939 million), decreasing 8% year over year.

Cost of revenues was RMB18.3 billion ($2.57 billion), increasing 12% year over year, primarily due to an increase in costs related to AI Cloud business and content costs.

Selling, general and administrative expenses were RMB6.6 billion ($924 million), increasing 12% year over year, primarily due to an increase in expected credit losses and channel spending expenses.  

Research and development expenses were RMB5.2 billion ($728 million), decreasing 3% year over year.  

Impairment of long-lived assets was RMB16.2 billion ($2.27 billion), attributable to an impairment loss of Core asset group.

Operating loss was RMB15.1 billion ($2.12 billion). Baidu Core operating loss was RMB15.0 billion ($2.10 billion), and Baidu Core operating loss margin was 61%. Excluding impairment of long-lived assets, operating income was RMB1.1 billion ($154 million), and Baidu Core operating income was RMB1.2 billion ($171 million). Non-GAAP operating income was RMB2.2 billion ($310 million). Non-GAAP Baidu Core operating income was RMB2.2 billion ($313 million), and non-GAAP Baidu Core operating margin was 9%.

Total other income, net was RMB1.9 billion ($273 million), compared to RMB2.7 billion in the same period last year.  

Income tax benefit was RMB1.8 billion ($257 million), compared to income tax expense of RMB814 million in the same period last year.

Net loss attributable to Baidu was RMB11.2 billion ($1.58 billion), and diluted loss per ADS was RMB33.88 ($4.76). Net loss attributable to Baidu Core was RMB11.1 billion ($1.56 billion), and net loss margin for Baidu Core was 45%. Excluding the impact of impairment of long-lived assets, net income attributable to Baidu was RMB2.6 billion ($359 million), and net income attributable to Baidu Core was RMB2.7 billion ($375 million). Non-GAAP net income attributable to Baidu was RMB3.8 billion ($530 million). Non-GAAP diluted earnings per ADS was RMB11.12 ($1.56). Non-GAAP net income attributable to Baidu Core was RMB3.8 billion ($539 million), and non-GAAP net margin for Baidu Core was 16%.

Adjusted EBITDA was RMB4.4 billion ($622 million) and adjusted EBITDA margin was 14%. Adjusted EBITDA for Baidu Core was RMB4.4 billion ($618 million) and adjusted EBITDA margin for Baidu Core was 18%.  

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 September 30, 2025, total cash and investments were RMB296.4 billion ($41.64 billion), and total cash and investments excluding iQIYI were RMB290.4 billion ($40.79 billion).Operating cash flow was RMB1.3 billion ($176 million), and operating cash flow excluding iQIYI was RMB1.5 billion ($214 million).

Please see full earnings report:

https://ir.baidu.com/news-releases/news-release-details/baidu-announces-third-quarter-2025-results

Source: Baidu  November 18, 2025