Baidu (NASDAQ: BIDU) boasts the highest market share in China's fast-growing artificial intelligence (AI) public cloud services market, according to a recent report by the International Data Corporation (IDC).
Baidu beat out such notable local competitors as Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) Cloud and Tencent (OTC: TCEHY) Cloud, as well as industry heavyweights Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) Web Services and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) Azure to win the title.
Image source: IDC.
In addition to being the market share leader, Baidu also has the highest number of invocations (the execution of a program or function) and provides the highest number of AI products and capabilities, according to the report. AI capabilities have become one of the key considerations for companies when they choose a cloud-computing provider, giving Baidu an edge for future growth.
In 2019, the AI cloud services market in China was valued at $166 million, and IDC predicts the market will see a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of nearly 94% between 2018 and 2024.
"As an AI platform company that is focused on empowering other organizations, Baidu hopes that every enterprise, no matter how small, is able to use capabilities and services provided by our platforms," said Baidu's co-founder, chairman, and CEO Robin Li.
The company announced several key agreements over the past week to supply AI cloud services to high-profile customers in China. Baidu is partnering with Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, China National Building Material Group, and the People's Government of Shanghai Pudong New Area to develop AI applications that will serve a variety of industries.
Baidu has been investing heavily in its cloud-computing segment in recent years and announced plans to deploy 5 million intelligent cloud servers by 2030 and train 5 million AI experts over the next 5 years.
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