The company is a leading player in autonomous driving (Baidu Apollo),[3] and smart consumer electronics (Xiaodu).

[4] With over a decade of investment in artificial intelligence, Baidu is one of the few tech companies globally to offer a full-stack AI stack, including software, chips, cloud infrastructure, foundation models, and applications.

[9][10][11] In October 2018, Baidu became the first Chinese firm to join the United States–based computer ethics consortium Partnership on AI.

In 1996, while at IDD, Li developed the RankDex site-scoring algorithm for search engines results page ranking[6][16][17] and received a US patent for the technology.

[23] Baidu went public on Wall Street through a variable interest entity (VIE) based in the Cayman Islands on 5 August 2005.

[28] On 18 November 2012, Baidu announced that it would be partnering with Qualcomm to offer free cloud storage to Android users with Snapdragon processors.

[34] Baidu plans to launch this project in July 2017, before gradually introducing fully autonomous driving capabilities on highways and open city roads by 2020.

[37] In June 2017, Baidu partnered with Continental and Bosch, auto industry suppliers, on automated driving and connected cars.

[38] In July 2017, Baidu GBU entered into a partnership with Snap Inc. to act as the company's official ad reseller for Snapchat in Greater China, South Korea, Japan and Singapore.

[41][42] At the same period, it has also led a joint investment of US$12billion with Alibaba Group, Tencent, JD.com and Didi Chuxing, acquiring 35% of China Unicom's stakes.

[51] In March 2021, Baidu secured a secondary listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, raising $3.1 billion.

[52] It also comes with the latest second-generation AI chip that can analyse the internal and external surroundings to provide predictive suggestions to proactively serve the needs of passengers.

[55] As of April 2024, Apollo Go, Baidu's autonomous ride-hailing service, had completed six million rides using driverless robotaxis across 11 cities.

[59] Baidu later launched legal action against Register.com for gross negligence after it was revealed that Register.com's technical support staff changed the email address for Baidu.com on the request of an unnamed individual, despite failing security verification procedures.

It is a quote from the last line of Xin Qiji's (辛弃疾) classical poem "Green Jade Table in The Lantern Festival" (青玉案·元夕) saying: "Having searched hundreds of times in the crowd, suddenly turning back, she is there in the dimmest candlelight."

This has prompted criticism and skepticism among Chinese users, with People's Daily commenting in 2018 on issues regarding reliability of Baidu results.

China, Microsoft's Bing and MSN Messenger, Sina, NetEase's Youdao and PaiPai, Alibaba's Taobao, TOM Online, DuckDuckGo, and EachNet.

[78] In an August 2010 Wall Street Journal article,[79] Baidu played down its benefit from Google's having moved its China search service to Hong Kong, but Baidu's share of revenue in China's search-advertising market grew six percentage points in the second quarter to 70%, according to Beijing-based research firm Analysys International.

As of 2011[update], it is discussing the possibility of working with Facebook, which would lead to a Chinese version of the international social network, managed by Baidu.

[80] This plan, if executed, would face off Baidu with competition from the three popular Chinese social networks Qzone, Renren[81] and Kaixin001[82] as well as induce rivalry with instant-messaging giant, Tencent QQ.

[83] On 22 February 2012, Hudong submitted a complaint to the State Administration for Industry and Commerce asking for a review of the behavior of Baidu, accusing it of being monopolistic.

This technology automatically scans files that are uploaded by Internet users, and recognizes and filters out content that may violate copyright law.

[93] According to the China Digital Times, Baidu has a long history of being the most active and restrictive online censor in the search arena.

[94] In May 2011, activists sued Baidu in the United States for violating the U.S. Constitution by the censorship it conducts in accord with the demand of the Chinese government.

[99] As part of the COVID-19 pandemic, Chinese regulators instructed Baidu, along with other Internet companies, to "conduct special supervision" on news and information related to the disease.

[100] In November 2022, Sustainalytics downgraded Baidu to "non-compliant" with the United Nations Global Compact principles due to complicity with censorship.

[101] In 2016, Baidu's P4P search results reportedly contributed to the death of a student who tried an experimental cancer therapy he found online.

[110] Just one of the apps, all of which were available on Google Play Store, had been downloaded 50 million times alone and carried a user rating of 4.5 stars by tens of thousands.

[120] In May 2024, Baidu's former vice president and head of communications Qu Jing [zh] (Chinese: 璩静) sparked major backlashes across the Chinese social media for endorsing toxic workplace culture, where, according to a Douyin video, she has asked a coworker to be on a 50-day business trip during the COVID-19 pandemic.