Artificial intelligence (AI) is advancing at breakneck speed, reshaping industries and fueling a global tech race. With governments backing AI innovation and companies pouring billions into research,

Baidu Inc. timed it just right with its $1.4 billion debt sale. The search engine giant’s offering — coming ahead of a $600 million debt due in April - wrapped up Wednesday, as investors kept bidding up China’s artificial intelligence-linked stocks.

Baidu could see further gains thanks to its advancements in AI—including Ernie Bot and self-driving technology—and by being one of the few publicly traded companies

The search-engine firm last month reported a 2 per cent decline in quarterly revenue and faces intensifying competition in the AI arena.

Tencent Holdings Limited’s Yuanbao AI chatbot passed DeelSeek as the most downloaded app on AppStore in China. Yuanbao integrates Hunyuan artificial intelligence technology alongside DeepSeek’s R1 reasoning model.

China's Baidu will launch the next generation of its artificial intelligence model Ernie in mid-March, which will see improved capabilities in areas such as reasoning, a source with direct knowledge of the matter said. The upgraded 4.5 Ernie model will also feature enhanced multimodal capabilities, the source said.

Chinas Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU) is set to release an upgraded version of its artificial intelligence model, Ernie 4.5, in mid-March, featuring enhanced reasoning and multimodal capabilities. According to a source familiar

Apple says the highly-anticipated AI overhaul that would give Siri to more contextual awareness and get work done across different apps will arrive next year.

CHINESE technology firm Baidu raised US$2 billion in a sale of bonds exchangeable into the Hong Kong shares of online travel agency Trip.com Group, matching the biggest ever US dollar offering in the format by an Asian issuer.

CHINESE technology giant Baidu began marketing offshore yuan-denominated bonds of five- and 10-year tenors, according to a source familiar with the matter. Read more at The Business Times.