Investing.com-- Baidu’s Hong Kong shares fell sharply on Monday, facing some profit-taking after an artificial intelligence-fueled rally as the Chinese internet giant prepares to release its fourth-quarter earnings.
Baidu Inc (NASDAQ:BIDU) (HK:9888) slid as much as 7.4% to HK$89.5, and was a major weight on the Hang Seng index.
Losses were driven chiefly by profit-taking, after hype over China’s artificial intelligence capabilities sparked a nearly 12% jump in Baidu’s shares last week. The company, along with other Chinese tech stocks, enjoyed increased investor interest following the release of DeepSeek in mid-January.
But this rally now appeared to be petering out, especially in anticipation of potentially weaker earnings from Baidu.
The company is forecast to report quarterly earnings per share of 16.42 yuan on revenue of 33.64 billion yuan- both weaker than the same period last year, according to Investing.com data. Baidu will report its quarterly earnings before the U.S. market opens on Tuesday.
The internet giant has been grappling with shrinking revenue from its core advertising business, while its cloud unit has also seen limited growth despite a ramp-up in its AI offerings over the past two years.
Still, the company’s share price rallied last week on increased hype over China’s AI capabilities, especially after the release of DeepSeek R1. Baidu capitalized on this hype by unveiling a new version of its Ernie AI bot, while also outlining plans to turn its AI models open source eventually.
Baidu also announced the integration of DeepSeek into some of its products.
While Baidu was among the first Chinese internet firms to begin heavily investing in its AI offerings, the company’s products have largely failed to gain momentum, pressuring margins for its cloud business.