Baidu's AI Chip Unit Valued at USD 2 Bn After Mega Funding Round

The investment round was led by CPE,  a Chinese asset management and private equity firm followed by the likes of IDG and Legend Capital, as well as a fund under Chinese investment company Oriza Holdings.

"The Kunlun chip business has recently completed a round of financing. We will release more information in due course," Baidu said in a statement sent to Reuters on Monday.

Kunlun's main application scenarios include not only Baidu's own use and deployment in smart cities and smart transportation, but also numerous research institutes and education enterprises.

The chips produced are currently used mostly by Baidu in smart electric vehicles and cloud computing.

A person familiar with the matter told Reuters that Baidu is considering commercializing its AI chip design capabilities, with the aim of making the Kunlun unit a standalone company.

The search engine giant recently said it had begun raising a target of USD 3 billion as part of its plans for a secondary listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The company's stock already trades on the Nasdaq Market in the US.