Baidu is rapidly becoming one of China’s most prominent artificial intelligence chip suppliers as domestic demand accelerates and U.S. restrictions limit access to Nvidia’s most advanced GPUs. The company’s semiconductor arm, Kunlunxin, has gained traction with new orders from major telecom suppliers and a five-year chip roadmap that begins with the M100 in 2026. Analysts say Baidu is increasingly positioned alongside Huawei as a primary domestic alternative for high-performance AI computing.
The company uses a mix of its own chips and Nvidia hardware in its data centers to power its ERNIE large language models, while selling processors to third-party data center builders and offering cloud-based compute. Forecasts project Baidu’s chip revenue to rise six-fold to 8 billion yuan in 2026, with some analysts valuing Kunlunxin at up to $28 billion.
China’s tech giants, including Tencent and Alibaba, continue to report chip shortages, underscoring the urgency for local solutions and reinforcing Baidu’s growing strategic role in the country’s AI supply chain.
