Baidu, the China-based search engine giant, said earlier today on its official WeChat account that it has established a 20 billion yuan ($3 billion) investment fund聽that the company will use to fund聽mid- and late-stage deals in the internet sector, with check sizes聽ranging from $50 million to $100 million.
Reuters, which first reported the news, notes the move looks like an attempt to future-proof the company as regional rivals Tencent Holdings and Alibaba Group Holdings seize more of the time of mobile users in China, and all three grapple with how to compete on the聽AI, AR, and VR front.
In fact, a JPMorgan analyst聽Alex Yao聽 warned in August聽that Baidu doesn’t have any visible growth drivers beyond search for the next few years unless the company can make a breakthrough in high-tech initiatives such as AI.
Baidu doesn’t take the threat lightly. Just yesterday, the company introduced an artificial intelligence-powered chatbot to connect with patients聽and聽field medical questions for聽doctors.
Baidu also last聽month announced Baidu Venture, a $200 million fund to invest in those three emerging fields of technology.
In fact, the聽company has been actively investing in startups for years. CrunchBase alone shows 49 bets, including investments in the consumer finance company Circle聽and the underwriting technologies company ZestFinance.
It also created a deep-learning research institute in 2013 and has been reportedly investing about 15 percent of its revenue in research.
As for Baidu Capital, the capital isn’t coming from Baidu alone but also from large insurance funds, securities companies and others聽and it will pull in聽two or three managing partners from the investment industry, according to the company.
Where it will be invested is anyone’s guess, but one safe bet is new car tech. Baidu has reportedly聽been working on autonomous vehicles since 2014. The company has said, too, that it plans to聽introduce automated public transportation services in China within the next two years.