Chinese tech giant Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU) continues to make significant inroads in the AI space. The company has struck a deal with electronics manufacturer Lenovo (HK:0992) to feature its AI technology on the latter’s smartphones, according to Reuters.
Notably, this is Baidu’s third AI smartphone deal, following previous partnerships with Samsung and Honor. As smartphone makers around the globe race to offer the latest AI service integrations in their devices, more such deals could be expected. Reportedly, Baidu’s Ernie bot is already included in the browser and app store apps of Lenovo’s devices.
Importantly, AI solutions from U.S. names such as OpenAI and Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) are not available in China. This leaves the door open for domestic names such as Baidu to swoop in and establish itself in one of the world’s biggest consumer markets. In fact, Samsung recently replaced Google’s AI with Ernie LLM on its Galaxy S24 phones in China. In December, Ernie Bot surpassed the 100 million user mark within nearly five months of being opened to the public, and multiple tech companies have introduced over 200 AI models in China so far.
Separately, Baidu’s fourth-quarter results are coming up on February 28. Analysts expect the company to post an EPS of $2.48 on revenue of $4.95 billion for the quarter.
What Is the Target Price for BIDU?
Overall, the Street has a Strong Buy consensus rating on Baidu, and the average BIDU price target of $164.39 implies a hefty 59.34% potential upside in the stock. That’s after a nearly 32.3% decline in the company’s share price over the past year.
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