Baidu and Huawei Sign Strategic Agreement to Lead the New Era of Mobile and AI

BEIJING, Dec. 21, 2017 -- Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ:BIDU) and Huawei have announced a comprehensive strategic cooperation agreement that spans from artificial intelligence (AI) platforms and technology, to internet services and content ecosystems. The two companies aim to cultivate an open mobile and AI ecosystem built on shared success, while spurring the development of new AI applications and providing global consumers with AI that “knows you better.”

Baidu Chairman and CEO, Robin Li, and CEO of Huawei Consumer Business Group, Richard Yu, at the signing ceremony on Thursday in Beijing.

“It should come as no surprise that Baidu and Huawei are working together, because we have many similarities - technology is embedded in our DNA and we have developed our own technologies in order to grow," said Robin Li, Baidu Chairman and CEO. "The Internet era is evolving into the era of AI. Baidu has been dedicated to the field of AI for a long time. Huawei has a large user base. Together, Baidu and Huawei can do many things which we were not able to do in the past. The Chinese saying ‘let a hundred flowers bloom’ is a good way to describe our cooperation – today we planted the seeds, and I believe soon they will grow into many flowers.”

"The future is all about smart devices that will actively serve us, not just respond to what we tell them to do," said Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei's Consumer Business Group. "With a strong background in R&D, Huawei will work with Baidu to accelerate innovation in the industry, develop the next generation of smartphones, and provide global consumers with AI that knows you better.”

Baidu and Huawei plan to build an open ecosystem using Huawei’s HiAI platform and Baidu Brain, a compendium of the company's AI assets and services. The open ecosystem will leverage Huawei’s Neural Network Processing Unit (NPU) and Baidu’s PaddlePaddle deep learning framework to empower AI developers, and provide consumers with a broad range of AI offerings and new smart service experiences. The two companies will work together on voice and image recognition for smart devices to enable more seamless human-machine interaction. They will also jointly build an augmented reality (AR) ecosystem, combining hardware and software to create a more immersive and accessible AR experience for everyday consumers.

Regarding internet services and content ecosystems, the companies will strengthen cooperation in areas such as search and feed to bring consumers a wealth of quality content with a more intuitive and convenient service experience.

Baidu is the leading Chinese language Internet search provider. Baidu's strategy is focused on two core pillars: strengthening its mobile foundation and leading in AI. Baidu is using AI to elevate its current core business, and in parallel, building out new AI-enabled initiatives through an open platform and ecosystem approach.

Huawei is the third largest smartphone manufacturer in the world. With a strong belief in the importance of customer-centricity, Huawei is actively exploring the future of smart technologies to help improve people's digital experience, which includes innovation in the 5G, AI, AR, virtual reality (VR), and other related domains. In 2017, Huawei released the Mate 10, the world's first smartphone powered by an embedded AI chipset, the Kirin 970. Huawei has been actively building the HiAI ecosystem based on these chips.

After a decade of rapid progress, the mobile phone industry has reached a critical point in its development and the next generation of smartphones is about to be born. Interactive technologies including voice, machine vision, AR and VR will drive the upgrade of the mobile phone industry. Originally developed to be personal tools, mobile phones will become a natural extension of humans and an everyday AI assistant for consumers. At this important time for the industry, Huawei and Baidu will continue to prioritize consumers and leverage both sides’ strengths to form a mutually beneficial, open and in-depth strategic cooperation.

AI is driving a new round of industry transformation. In-depth strategic cooperation between Baidu and Huawei will open up more possibilities for the development of AI and other technologies. It will help lay the foundation for a sustainable mobile and AI ecosystem, so that future technology can better understand users, better serve people, and promote better economic and social outcomes around the world.

About Baidu

Baidu, Inc. is the leading Chinese language Internet search provider. Baidu aims to make a complex world simpler through technology. Baidu's ADSs trade on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol "BIDU". Currently, ten ADSs represent one Class A ordinary share.

About Huawei Consumer Business Group

Huawei’s products and services are available in more than 170 countries, and are used by a third of the world’s population. Fifteen R&D centers have been set up in the United States, Europe, Japan, India and China, etc. Huawei Consumer BG is one of Huawei’s three business units and covers smartphones, PC and tablets, wearables, mobile broadband device, family device and device cloud service, is the third largest smartphone manufacturer in the world. Huawei’s global network advantages, global operation capacity and global partnership are built on 20 years of expertise in telecom industry. Huawei Consumer BG is dedicated to delivering the latest technologies to consumers and sharing the happiness of technological advances with more people around the world. Walk the walk and make dreams come true.

For more information please visit: http://consumer.huawei.com/en

Media Contact

Baidu International Communications
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HUAWEI Corporate Communications Dept
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A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/7ffd4b89-aeed-4018-9f12-46e59022836a