A wide presumption of the Baidu logo is seen astatine the Shanghai New Expo Center during the World Artificial Intelligence Conference 2025 successful Shanghai, China, connected July 28, 2025.
Ying Tang | Nurphoto | Getty Images
Chinese tech elephantine Baidu has announced plans to rotation disconnected its artificial quality spot subsidiary, Kunlunxin, and database it successful Hong Kong, arsenic much home chipmakers question funds amid Beijing's propulsion for semiconductor self-sufficiency.
The institution said successful an announcement Friday that it had confidentially filed a listing exertion connected the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, though details of the offering, including size and structure, stay undecided.
The determination would inactive necessitate regulatory approvals, including from China's securities watchdog. Baidu emphasized determination is nary warrant the spin-off volition proceed. The institution reportedly owns astir 59% of Kunlunxin.
Baidu, a large subordinate successful China's increasing AI space, is some a purchaser of specialized AI chips for information centers and unreality computing, arsenic good arsenic a decorator of them done Kunlunxin.
The steadfast said that the spin-off would align with its strategy to item Kunlunxin's standalone potential, pull sector-specific investors, and grow financing options. Kunlunxin would stay a Baidu subsidiary, it added.
The determination comes against a backdrop of intensifying U.S.-China tech tensions. Both Washington and Beijing person imposed assorted restrictions connected Chinese AI companies' entree to leading-edge AI chips from California-based Nvidia.
Meanwhile, Beijing has progressively encouraged home spot purchases and mobilized billions successful nationalist funds towards development.
In caller months, respective Chinese chipmakers have announced plans to list, including Moore Threads and Biren Technology.
A Growing Business Focus
Founded successful 2012, Kunlunxin is cardinal to Baidu's ambition to go a "full stack" AI company, spanning hardware, servers and information centers, arsenic good arsenic AI models and applications.
While Baidu has historically been precise reliant connected Nvidia's chips to supply astir of its AI compute, it has progressively deployed a premix of its self-developed chips successful its information centers to tally its Ernie AI models.
Kunlunxin has besides shifted to run arsenic a abstracted entity, expanding its income to third-party customers extracurricular Baidu.
Reuters antecedently reported that Kunlunxin's gross is projected to transcend 3.5 cardinal yuan ($500 million) past year, reaching break-even. External income were expected to relationship for much than fractional of its gross successful 2025, the study added.
In different motion of spot past year, Kunlunxin won orders worthy implicit 1 cardinal yuan from suppliers to China Mobile, 1 of the country's biggest mobile carriers.
China Mobile besides participated successful the entity's latest funding, which had raised implicit 2 cardinal yuan and valued the portion astatine astir 21 cardinal yuan, according to Reuters.
In its announcement, Baidu said its plans to rotation disconnected and database Kunlunxin would amended necktie absorption incentives with show and elevate the unit's marketplace presence.
Late past year, JPMorgan analysts forecast that Kunlunxin's spot income would summation sixfold to 8 cardinal Chinese yuan successful 2026.
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