China’s Baidu says it expects ‘restricted’ impression from U.S. chip curbs

Chinese language tech firm Baidu expects that impression from U.S. chip sanctions on its companies might be “restricted,” an organization government stated on Tuesday throughout a Q&A session of its third quarter earnings name.

In October, america imposed export controls limiting American companies from promoting semiconductors and chipmaking gear to Chinese language chip producers.

“We predict the impression is kind of restricted within the close to future,” stated Dou Shen, government vice chairman and head of AI Cloud group, in response to an viewers member’s query about how the curbs will have an effect on Baidu’s capacity to develop its synthetic intelligence cloud computing arm and autonomous driving companies, which depend upon superior AI chips.

“A big portion of our AI Cloud enterprise and even wider AI enterprise doesn’t rely an excessive amount of on the extremely superior chips,” stated Shen.

Baidu additionally runs a robotaxi enterprise, Apollo Go, which has secured permits in Beijing, Wuhan and Chongqing’s Yongchuan District to run a completely driverless business robotaxi service in these locations.

“And for the a part of our companies that want superior chips, we’ve got already stocked sufficient in hand to help our enterprise within the close to time period,” he stated.

Shen added that Baidu develops its personal AI chip, named Kunlun. He stated Baidu has already began to make use of Kunlun chip to help some large-scale AI-computing duties internally and to serve exterior prospects.

“As a result of we’ve got full stack of AI capabilities from chips to frameworks to basis fashions and to software software program, we are able to obtain a lot greater effectivity as we optimize the AI duties from finish to finish,” Shen stated.

He added that automotive chips will not be on the prohibited checklist. “So, which means within the close to future, in-vehicle computing just isn’t affected,” he stated.

An analyst advised CNBC’s “Squawk Field Asia” Wednesday that Baidu is “completely” a prime choose, citing chip resilience as one of many causes.

“They’re diversifying the manufacturing into their very own facility and beginning to use their very own chips, Kunlun, for superior functions,” stated James Lee, a U.S. and China web analyst from Mizuho Securities.

Baidu posted yesterday a better-than-expected acquire in income after price cuts bolstered its backside line. Internet marketing additionally carried out higher than anticipated regardless of difficult financial circumstances corresponding to Covid restrictions and inflation.

Baidu inventory rose 2.61% Wednesday and is down 35.7% 12 months up to now.