Baidu and Uber partner to deploy autonomous vehicles globally

BEIJING/SAN FRANCISCO - Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ:BIDU and HKEX: 9888), the $29.5 billion Chinese tech giant with a robust 49% gross profit margin, and Uber Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:UBER) announced Monday a multi-year strategic partnership to deploy thousands of Baidu’s Apollo Go autonomous vehicles on the Uber platform in markets outside the U.S. and mainland China.

The first deployments are expected to begin in Asia and the Middle East later this year. When the service launches, riders requesting qualifying Uber trips may be offered the option to have their journey completed by a fully driverless Apollo Go vehicle.

Apollo Go currently operates a fleet of over 1,000 fully driverless vehicles across 15 cities globally, including Dubai and Abu Dhabi. The service has provided more than 11 million cumulative rides to the public as of May, according to the press release statement.

"We are committed to bringing the benefit of autonomous driving technology to more people in more markets, and this partnership with Uber represents a major milestone in deploying our technology on a global scale," said Robin Li, Co-founder, Chairman, and CEO of Baidu. The company’s strong financial position is reflected in its conservative P/E ratio of 8.5 and healthy current ratio of 2.29, according to InvestingPro data.

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi stated that the partnership brings together "two of the world’s most iconic technology companies to help shape the future of mobility."

The collaboration aims to increase the supply of ridesharing options by integrating Baidu’s autonomous vehicles into Uber’s network. Neither company disclosed financial terms of the agreement or specific rollout timelines beyond the initial launch expected later this year. With annual revenue of $18.47 billion and strong cash positions exceeding debt levels, Baidu appears well-positioned to execute this expansion. For detailed financial analysis and 10+ additional exclusive insights, visit InvestingPro.

In other recent news, Baidu, Inc. announced the appointment of Haijian He as its new Chief Financial Officer. Haijian He joins Baidu from Kingsoft Cloud Holdings Limited, bringing with him extensive experience from roles at Goldman Sachs, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, and Citigroup Global Markets. As part of the management changes, Junjie He will transition to Senior Vice President overseeing human resources and administrative functions, while Shanshan Cui has been named Secretary General to the company’s Organizational Culture Committee. In another significant development, Baidu rolled out two advanced artificial intelligence models, ERNIE 4.5 Turbo and ERNIE X1 Turbo, at its annual developer conference. These models are highlighted for their enhanced capabilities and cost-effectiveness, with ERNIE 4.5 Turbo priced at 20% of its predecessor’s cost. Baidu also introduced a new multi-agent collaboration app, Xinxiang, and showcased digital humans with lifelike voices and appearances. The company launched the AI Open Initiative to provide developers with access to traffic and monetization opportunities. Additionally, Baidu announced the third ERNIE Cup Innovation Challenge with increased prize amounts and plans to develop 10 million AI talents over the next five years.

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