We recently compiled a list of the Top 10 Must-See AI News Updates for Investors. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ:BIDU) stands against the other AI stocks.
There is no room for artificial intelligence to be dominated by massive players looking to use revolutionary technology to censure and control users’ thoughts. That’s the sentiment echoed by US Vice President JD Vance, who is against authoritarian regulatory approaches that stifle innovation. The remarks come against the backdrop of the European Union passing the EU AI Act, which claims to protect people’s safety and rights.
The US has already taken issue with the new EU AI act over concerns that it could be used to clamp down on Silicon Valley.
“The Trump administration is troubled by reports that some foreign governments are considering tightening the screws on US tech companies with international footprints,” Vance said during an AI summit hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron. “Now America cannot and will not accept that, and we think it’s a terrible mistake, not just for the United States of America, but for your own countries.”
The remarks underscore the high stakes in play as nations race to gain an edge around the artificial intelligence boom. While there have been calls for guardrails to avoid the development of AI models that are beyond human control, the prospects of such measures having a negative impact on AI development continue to rattle feathers. Additionally, there are concerns that economic blocks and nations could resort to AI regulation as one of the ways of safeguarding their interest rather than use it to gain a competitive edge.
The US has been at the forefront of limiting access to advanced semiconductors and equipment, touting them as a national interest. Its tussle with China threatens to throw the nascent sector into disarray at a time when there are calls for collaboration to accelerate development.
“We will safeguard American AI and chip technologies from theft and misuse, work with our allies and partners to strengthen and extend these protections and close pathways to adversaries attaining AI capabilities that threaten all of our people,” he said. “And I would also remind our international friends here today that partnering with such regimes; it never pays off in the long term.”
Vance has promised to prevent foreign enemies or authoritarian governments from abusing US chip technology. The sentiments echo restrictions imposed by the previous administration that limited access to advanced AI to certain EU member states. The Trump administration has been under pressure from EU officials to overturn that ruling.
The European approach to AI differs from the closed-source approach that American entrepreneurs prefer because its programmers release their models for others to enhance. A growing perception is that open-source models make things much cheaper going by DeepSeek’s success.
For this article, we selected AI stocks by going through news articles, stock analysis, and press releases. These stocks are also popular among hedge funds.
Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 275% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 150 percentage points (see more details here).
A modern internet space with a person using Baidu services on a laptop.
Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ:BIDU)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 54
Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ:BIDU) is an internet giant best known for operating the largest search engine in China. While the company also offers online marketing and cloud services, it also offers services from artificial intelligence initiatives. It was one of the first companies to launch AI products following OpenAI’s ChatGPT launch in 2022 and has already released its own large language model, Ernie, that matches GPT-4’s capabilities.
Amid the flurry of investment and scare triggered by DeepSeek, Baidu, Inc.’s (NASDAQ:BIDU) CEO Robin Li reiterated on February 11th that more investment in data centers and cloud infrastructure is needed. While DeepSeek has shown it is possible to come up with cost-efficient large AI models, Li insists investments are needed to support the AI boom: “The investment in cloud infrastructure is still very much required. In order to come up with models that are smarter than everyone else, you have to use more computing,” Li told attendees at the World Government Summit in Dubai. The remarks come amid soaring questions on the necessity of spending billions of dollars on AI infrastructure.
Overall BIDU ranks 4th on our list of the must-see AI stocks for investors. While we acknowledge the potential of BIDU as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than BIDU but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and Complete List of 59 AI Companies Under $2 Billion in Market Cap.
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
