Chinese tech giant Baidu has announced that it will launch a venture fund with $145 million to support start-ups focused on content generated by artificial intelligence (AI) applications. Baidu will also launch a developer competition for applications that use its ERNIE large language model (LLM), or integrate the model into existing products. The move follows the playbook of other companies, including Google and OpenAI, which have each established similar initiatives. Companies are looking to fund start-ups that could become acquisition targets in a race to dominate the increasingly competitive area of generative AI.
Baidu is a Chinese technology company specialising in Internet-related services and products, and artificial intelligence (AI) among other areas.
Baidu’s billionaire founder, Robin Li, is a Chinese internet entrepreneur. He co-founded Baidu in 2000 and is also an investor in autonomous vehicle technology.
