Cathy Wood is not known to sit on the sidelines. The founder of ARK Invest has a long history of making bold bets on disruptive technology, and her latest move is turning heads.
Last week, Wood added more than $12 million in Baidu ( BIDU ) stock to ARK Investments’ exchange-traded funds. This is a significant call at a time when the artificial intelligence competition between the United States and China is heating up.
So what does Wood see in Baidu that others might be missing?
Many Americans know Baidu as China’s version of Google ( GOOGL ) ( GOOG ). But the company has quietly transformed itself into one of China’s most comprehensive AI platforms, and its recent earnings results are paying off.
In the fourth quarter of 2025, Baidu’s core AI-powered business generated revenue of more than 11 billion RMB ($1.6 billion), equivalent to 43% of Baidu’s overall business revenue. This share has been increasing steadily in recent quarters.
The company operates in several high-growth AI verticals:
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AI cloud infrastructure: Revenue to reach nearly RMB 20 billion ($2.9 billion) for full year 2025, up 34% year-over-year (YoY). Subscription-based revenue from AI accelerator infrastructure grew 143% YoY in Q4 alone.
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Autonomous ride hailing (Apollo Go): Baidu to deliver more than 10 million fully driverless rides by 2025. Cumulative ridership to the public has now reached 20 million. The service has expanded to 26 cities around the world, including Abu Dhabi, Dubai, London and Seoul.
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Applications of AI: 2025 full-year revenue from AI applications exceeds RMB 10 billion ($1.45 billion). ERNIE Assistant, Baidu’s AI chatbot, exceeded 200 million monthly active users in December.
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AI Native Marketing (Digital Humans and Agents): Revenue of this segment to grow by 110% YoY by 2025.
“AI is now tightly integrated into our portfolio,” Baidu co-founder and CEO Robin Li said on the earnings call.
Buying a wooden boat was not an isolated move. Amid ARK’s fundraising last week, the company made a broad move toward AI infrastructure, autonomous technology, and AI-powered applications, while shedding legacy assets.
