At a developer conference in Wuhan, Baidu unveiled updated AI models Ernie 4.5 Turbo and Ernie X1 Turbo, cutting their prices by 80% and 50%, respectively. Against this backdrop, the company’s shares rose by more than 5% in Hong Kong trading, strengthening Baidu’s position in the competition with Alibaba, DeepSeek, and other players in the Chinese AI market.
Image source: baidu.com
The company claims that the updated AI models are faster and cheaper than previous versions, allowing developers to focus on building apps without worrying about the capabilities and costs of AI models, tools, and development platforms. In addition to the improved AI models, the company has introduced an AI agent platform called Xinxiang, designed to automate everyday tasks. This development is intended to increase competition with Chinese service Manus AI.
The company also announced the installation of new servers that will allow developers to connect their AI models to Baidu’s search and e-commerce data. CEO Robin Li said it had produced 30,000 AI chips that the company is already using, but did not provide specifications for the chips.
Baidu was the first company in China’s $1 trillion tech sector to release an AI chatbot, modeled after ChatGPT. However, AI chatbots developed by ByteDance and Moonshot AI soon overtook Baidu’s product in popularity. In parallel, open-source AI models such as Alibaba’s Qwen and DeepSeek’s solutions have gained widespread acceptance among developers around the world.