Baidu (BIDU) Gains Catalyst Watch at Citi as AI Strategy Accelerates

Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ:BIDU) ranks among the best AI stocks to buy according to analysts. On December 15, Citi opened a 90-day upside catalyst watch on Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ:BIDU), indicating possible favorable developments in the upcoming months, while maintaining its Buy rating on the company’s shares with a $181 price target.

Twin Design / Shutterstock.com

The announcement of the Kunlunxin spin-off in December creates $3 billion in semiconductor value while preserving strategic chip ownership. Kunlunxin is one of the few Chinese companies developing technology necessary for AI training and inference. It creates accelerators that are used in servers throughout data centers. Its efforts have been crucial to Beijing’s long-standing goal of reducing reliance on US technology, especially Nvidia chips.

In addition to Kunlunxin, the most significant recent development is Baidu’s November 2025 release of the ERNIE 5.0 foundation model and improved AI product suite, which supports its efforts to further integrate AI across its cloud and search offerings. According to the company, Ernie 5.0 kept up with industry leaders like DeepSeek, Gemini, and GPT-5 in on-stage language, audio, and visual data understanding assessments.

Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ:BIDU), a leading Chinese technology company, manages China’s largest internet search engine. The company has also expanded into AI-driven initiatives that include self-driving technology.

While we acknowledge the potential of BIDU as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you're looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on thebest short-term AI stock.

Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.

Content Original Link:

Original Source At Yahoo Finance

" target="_blank">

Original Source At Yahoo Finance