Shares of "China's Google" soared 14%. Why did investors rush to buy them up?

Quotes of China's largest Internet search engine Baidu made the fastest jump in more than two years. This happened after there were no analysts left in the market who advised to sell shares of "Chinese Google".

In the morning of September 17, Baidu securities rose by 14% in Hong Kong - so fast they have not grown since March 2023. Before that, Arete Research Services raised its rating on Baidu's American depositary receipts (ADR) from "sell" to "buy" and its target price from $71 to $143 per paper. Arete analysts Sean Young and Richard Kramer estimate that Baidu's project to produce its own chips can more than compensate for the weakness of its Internet advertising business, Bloomberg writes. Arete remained the only firm with a "sell" recommendation - it has maintained it since Ma 2024.

According to Bloomberg, analysts are gradually becoming more optimistic about Baidu's artificial intelligence plans after earlier disappointments. Goldman Sachs economists said in a Sept. 16 report that Baidu's latest artificial intelligence model, Ernie X1.1, has shown "significant improvements," in some places even surpassing the much ballyhooed DeepSeek.

This is reflected in the shares: now the quotations of Baidu- at the highest level since October 2023. In September, they rose more than 40% on optimism about its business strategy, outperforming the index of securities of similar companies, notes the agency. According to MarketScreener, 28 analysts now recommend buying Baidu shares, seven - to keep them in the portfolio.

Kunlun, a subsidiary of Baidu set up to develop its own AI chips, said in August 2025 that it has received orders from China Mobile to supply chips for AI servers, with a higher contract volume than its competitors. Kunlun's main product is a line of Baidu Kunlun AI chips for data centers, cloud services and robotaxis.

Late last week, Baidu shares jumped 13% to their highest level since January 2024. Investors began buying up shares of the Internet search giant on news that the company had begun training its Ernie neural network on chips of its own design, replacing scarce and expensive Nvidia gas pedals.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor