China’s tech giant Baidu has begun a new round of large-scale layoffs affecting multiple business units, according to six sources familiar with the matter. The job cuts come as the company faces mounting pressure from rapid advances in artificial intelligence and a sharp decline in its core online advertising revenue. The downsizing follows Baidu’s third-quarter earnings report on November 18, where the company posted a quarterly loss and its second consecutive revenue drop.
Sources say the layoffs are expected to continue through the end of the year, with some teams seeing reductions as high as 40%, depending on performance ratings and business unit restructuring. While the exact companywide number of job cuts remains unclear, the internal perception is that the scale is significant. Baidu’s workforce has already been shrinking for several years, falling to 35,900 employees at the end of 2024 from more than 41,000 two years prior.
The company’s mobile ecosystem division is expected to see the deepest cuts. However, roles tied to artificial intelligence and cloud computing will largely be safeguarded as Baidu shifts more resources toward strengthening its AI capabilities. Despite being the first major Chinese tech firm to launch a ChatGPT-style service in 2023, Baidu has struggled to maintain its early momentum. Its Ernie large language model now trails behind offerings from Alibaba and fast-rising AI startup DeepSeek, both in performance and adoption.
Baidu’s AI chatbot, Ernie Bot, recorded 10.77 million monthly active users in September—far behind competitors like ByteDance’s Doubao with 150 million users and DeepSeek with over 73 million. While Baidu has integrated AI more deeply into its search products, these efforts have yet to offset falling ad revenue, which dropped 18% in the third quarter. The company’s overall revenue slipped 7%, and it reported a loss of 11.23 billion yuan ($1.59 billion).
As global tech giants including Amazon and IBM also undergo major restructurings, Baidu’s job cuts reflect broader challenges facing the technology sector amid shifting market conditions and intensifying AI battles.


U.S. Deploys Tomahawks, B-2 Bombers, F-35 Jets and AI Tools in Operation Epic Fury Against Iran
APEX Tech Acquisition Inc. Raises $111.97 Million in NYSE IPO Under Ticker TRADU
Trump Pushes Tech Giants to Build Power Plants to Offset AI Data Center Energy Costs
Nintendo Share Sale: MUFG and Bank of Kyoto to Sell Stakes in Strategic Unwinding
FedEx Faces Class Action Lawsuit Over Tariff Refunds After Supreme Court Ruling
Amazon’s $50B OpenAI Investment Tied to AGI Milestone and IPO Plans
Hyundai Motor Group to Invest $6.26 Billion in AI Data Center, Robotics and Renewable Energy Projects in South Korea
Malta will gain from smart heritage
Australia Targets AI Platforms With Strict Age Verification Rules
Pentagon Weighs Supply Chain Risk Designation for Anthropic Over Claude AI Use
Anthropic Refuses Pentagon Request to Remove AI Safeguards Amid Defense Contract Dispute
Meta Signs Multi-Billion Dollar AI Chip Deal With Google to Power Next-Gen AI Models
Coupang Reports Q4 Loss After Data Breach, Revenue Misses Estimates
Nvidia to Launch New AI Inference Processor to Boost OpenAI Performance
OpenAI Pentagon AI Contract Adds Safeguards Amid Anthropic Dispute
Flare, Xaman Roll Out One-Click DeFi Vault for XRP Yield via XRPL Wallets
Boeing Secures $166.8 Million U.S. Navy Contract for P-8A Engineering and Software Support 



