Baidu's CFO on How It Became a Full-Stack AI Player

The competition between U.S. and Chinese tech giants in the AI sector centers on full-stack integration, encompassing cloud platforms, custom silicon, and application-layer agents. Baidu CFO Henry He highlights the strategic shift from infrastructure-heavy pre-training to inference-driven applications, where cloud platforms serve as the essential foundation for hosting models and connecting to real-world tasks. Capital allocation now prioritizes ROI-focused investments, balancing high-growth AI initiatives with the need for fiscal responsibility. The deployment of physical AI, specifically the Apollo Go robotaxi service, demonstrates how data-rich environments and operational efficiency drive competitive advantages. Furthermore, the transition toward "daily active agents" as a key performance metric reflects a broader industry move toward result-oriented AI utility, where autonomous agents execute complex tasks, ultimately reshaping traditional business models and revenue structures in the tech industry.