Baidu (BIDU) Q3 Earnings Report Shows Revenue Decline
Baidu posts Q3 revenue decline and a large GAAP loss driven by RMB16.2B impairment; AI businesses continue to scale with strong adoption across Cloud, Applications, and Apollo Go.
Key Points
- Revenue: RMB31.17B, down 7% YoY and down 5% QoQ.
- Baidu Core revenue: RMB24.66B, down 7% YoY.
- GAAP Net Loss: RMB11.23B, driven by RMB16.19B impairment of long-lived assets.
- Non-GAAP Net Income: RMB3.77B (down 36% YoY).
- Non-GAAP Diluted EPS: RMB11.12.
- Adjusted EBITDA: RMB4.43B (↓49% YoY).
- Cash & Investments: RMB296.4B as of Sept 30, 2025.
Quarter Highlights
AI Cloud
- AI Cloud revenue within “AI Cloud Infra” reached RMB4.2B, up 33% YoY.
- Subscription-based AI accelerator infrastructure revenue grew 128% YoY.
- Qianfan platform upgraded to an agent-centric architecture, strengthening enterprise AI adoption.
AI Applications
- Revenue reached RMB2.6B, up 6% YoY.
- Baidu Wenku + Baidu Drive launched GenFlow, a general-purpose agent platform for productivity tasks.
AI-Native Marketing
- Revenue accelerated to RMB2.8B, up 262% YoY, as customers increased spending on AI-native marketing tools.
Intelligent Driving (Apollo Go)
- 3.1M fully driverless rides in Q3, with YoY growth jumping to 212% (prior quarter: 148%).
- Weekly fully driverless rides exceeded 250,000 in October.
- Total public rides surpassed 17M; accumulated 240M autonomous km, including 140M km fully driverless.
- Expanded global footprint to 22 cities, including new operations in Switzerland, Abu Dhabi, Hong Kong.
Mobile Ecosystem
- In October, ~70% of mobile search result pages contained AI-generated content.
- Baidu App MAUs reached 708M, up 1% YoY.
CEO & Management Commentary (Fact-Based)
Robin Li, CEO
- AI Cloud: Said the segment “maintained solid growth momentum” due to broadening enterprise adoption of Baidu’s AI products.
- Apollo Go: Highlighted “significant acceleration” in scaling fully driverless operations and rapid global expansion, including Switzerland, and emphasized industry-leading safety metrics.
- Mobile Ecosystem: Noted “rapid revenue growth” in AI-native monetization products such as agents and digital humans.
- Strategic Position: Asserted Baidu will continue pioneering AI innovations to “create substantial value” and strengthen its leadership in the AI era.
Haijian He, CFO
- AI-powered business revenue exceeded RMB10B in Q3, growing over 50% YoY.
- Stated that strong AI momentum “cushioned the softness” in online marketing.
- Reinforced that AI investments are producing “strong returns” and supporting sustainable long-term growth.
Financial Summary
| Metric | Q3 2025 | YoY | QoQ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total Revenue | RMB31.17B | –7% | –5% |
| Baidu Core Revenue | RMB24.66B | –7% | –6% |
| Online Marketing Revenue | RMB15.3B | –18% | N/A |
| Non-online Marketing Revenue | RMB9.3B | +21% | N/A |
| GAAP Operating Loss | –RMB15.09B | N/A | N/A |
| Non-GAAP Operating Income | RMB2.20B | –69% | –50% |
| GAAP Net Loss | –RMB11.23B | N/A | N/A |
| Non-GAAP Net Income | RMB3.77B | –36% | –21% |
| Adj. EBITDA | RMB4.43B | –49% | –32% |
| Operating Cash Flow | RMB1.26B | N/A | N/A |
| Cash & Investments | RMB296.4B | — | — |
Key Takeaways (Factual, Press-Release Based)
- Baidu’s Q3 results were dominated by a large RMB16.19B asset impairment, which turned the quarter into a steep GAAP loss despite positive non-GAAP profitability.
- Online marketing remained the weak spot, falling 18% YoY, while AI-powered businesses showed clear traction with 50%+ YoY growth.
- AI Cloud, AI Applications, and AI-native Marketing all posted strong adoption indicators, offsetting weakness in legacy segments.
- Apollo Go demonstrated industry-leading growth, more than tripling fully driverless rides YoY and expanding into new international markets.
- Excluding the impairment, Baidu would have reported positive GAAP net income, showing the underlying operations remain profitable on a normalized basis.