[Goldman Sachs: Baidu's AI Cloud Business Remains Strong, AI Business Expected to Account for Over Half by Year-End] Jin10 Data, May 21 – Goldman Sachs released a research report stating that Baidu (09888.HK) showed accelerated growth in cloud business revenue in the first quarter of this year, particularly in GPU-based cloud services. The firm expects Baidu's AI-driven business to grow by more than 30% year-on-year, primarily benefiting from robust growth in AI cloud infrastructure (over 50% year-on-year). The firm predicts that by the end of 2026, contributions from AI-driven businesses will surpass those from traditional/other businesses. During an analyst meeting, management revealed that Baidu aims for its cloud business growth to outpace the market and major competitors in the coming quarters. The company observed that token usage is shifting from training to inference, which helps Baidu Cloud expand its customer coverage. The firm cited management's remarks that the current capabilities of the Wenxin Yiyan model are lagging, and future R&D will focus on revitalizing the model's capabilities, prioritizing the development of Wenxin Yiyan to drive MaaS (Model-as-a-Service) revenue. Goldman Sachs expects the mid-term gross profit margin target for GPU cloud business to be 35% to 40%, compared to 25% to 30% for traditional CPU and memory services. Management aims to have AI-driven business account for over 50% of total revenue and to reduce the holding company discount through rapid growth in core cloud/chip revenue.