Stocks for Chinese tech company Baidu soared 18.6% in Hong Kong on Wednesday and 7.8% in the United States overnight after announcing a new artificial intelligence (AI) partnership and plans for funding.
Earlier this week, the company secured an AI-focused deal with China Merchants Group to collaborate on large language models, AI agents and digital employee technologies for industrial use.
“Both sides plan to focus on applications of large language models, AI agents and ‘digital employees,’ vowing to make scalable and sustainable progress in industrial intelligence based on real-life business scenarios,” according to Baidu’s statement translated by CNBC.
The tech giants' AI efforts include their Ernie Bot chatbot, which gained traction following regulatory approval.
Baidu announced another boost to its AI endeavours with a 4.4 billion yuan (US$56.2 million) offshore bond due 2029.
This will allow it to compete with other Chinese AI players like Tencent, which have also been raising funds via debt sales this year and pouring billions into their AI capabilities.
In total, the Chinese AI companies have sold 23.4 billion yuan (US$4.2 billion) of offshore renminbi bonds in 2025, marking the largest for the sector ever.
At the time of writing, Baidu (HKG: 9888) stocks have grown by 18.6% to HK$133.80. Its market cap is $308.84 billion.
