Chinese tech giant Baidu posted soaring profit growth in the second quarter of this year thanks to its continuous investment in artificial intelligence (AI).
Net income attributable to Baidu in Q2 reached 4.415 billion yuan (about 651 million U.S. dollars), jumping 82.9 percent year on year, according to the company's unaudited financial statement released Friday.
Total revenues stood at 20.874 billion yuan, a 14.3-percent increase from Q2 2016, with mobile revenue as the main contributor.
Online marketing revenues in Q2 reached 17.883 billion yuan, up 5.6 percent year on year.
Baidu announced its new mission in Q2 to "make a complex world simpler through technology."
To achieve the mission, Baidu will strengthen its mobile foundation in AI and use AI as a fundamental driver to elevate its current core business, specifically core products of Mobile Baidu, search and feed,according to Robin Li, Baidu's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.
Meanwhile, Baidu will continue to build out its newer AI-enabled initiatives through an open platform and ecosystem approach to capture long-term economic opportunity, Li added.
Baidu announced earlier this month it will roll out two major open AI platforms, DuerOS and Apollo, to speed up development in technology and applications for man-machine dialogue and autonomous driving.
The company expects to generate total revenues ranging from 23.130 billion yuan to 23.750 billion yuan for the third quarter of 2017, representing an annual increase of 26.7 percent to 30.1 percent.
