Baidu Plunges After Absence of Founder at Xi Jinping Symposium
Baidu's (BIDU) Hong Kong shares plummeted on Monday, erasing $2.4 billion in market value. This steep decline followed the notable absence of Baidu's founder, Robin Li, at a meeting between President Xi Jinping and corporate leaders.
Xi's symposium in Beijing included prominent tycoons such as Alibaba's Jack Ma and Huawei's Ren Zhengfei. However, sources confirmed to Reuters that Li was not present at the gathering.
Investors and market analysts closely monitor attendance at such key events. The absence of a company's top executive can trigger speculation about its standing. Baidu's shares initially dropped by 8.8% before closing down 7%.
Baidu's market value now stands at HK$252.05 billion ($32.4 billion), making it the biggest loser on both the Hang Seng Index and Hang Seng Tech Index.
Brokers attributed Baidu's weak performance to its recent announcement of fully integrating its search engine with DeepSeek, a Chinese AI start-up, and its Ernie large language model.
"This suggests that the company is losing its competitive edge," said an anonymous sales director at a regional brokerage. "Baidu may need to catch up with new players like DeepSeek."
The sales director also indicated that Li's absence from the symposium could raise concerns about the company's market position.
Xi's meeting underscored the government's support for China's tech sector after years of regulatory scrutiny, aiming to boost economic growth and manage uncertain relations with the United States.
Baidu has emphasized its AI investments, seeking to diversify its revenue sources beyond advertising. It launched an early version of a ChatGPT-style chatbot in 2023, citing the capabilities of its Ernie 4.0 model as comparable to OpenAI's GPT-4.