Baidu, the Chinese tech giant known for its search engine service, has released its second quarter 2022 results. In Q2, Baidu’s total revenues were RMB 29.6 billion ($4.43 billion). Non-GAAP net income attributable to Baidu was RMB 5.5 billion ($827 million), increasing 3% year over year and 43% quarter over quarter.

The company has continued to invest heavily in R&D - Baidu Core’s R&D expenses account for more than 20% of Baidu Core’s revenue for 7 consecutive quarters. Non-GAAP Baidu Core operating margin was 22%, up from 17% in the last quarter.

Baidu maintains its lead in the artificial intelligence cloud industry - On June 22, IDC released the 2021H2 China AI Cloud Services Market Research Report, which shows that Baidu AI Cloud ranks first in the overall AI software and application market as a Chinese AI cloud service vendor in 2021H2 (second half of 2021). This is the sixth consecutive time that Baidu AI Cloud has been ranked as the No. 1 AI public cloud service in terms of market share. Baidu AI Cloud revenues maintained rapid growth momentum of 31% year over year and 10% quarter over quarter.

More specifically, a Baidu AI cloud solution for transportation scenarios — the Baidu ACE smart transportation —  has been adopted by 51 cities in China, up from 20 cities a year ago, based on a contract value of over RMB10 million, as of the end of the second quarter of 2022.

Another notable aspect of Baidu’s second-quarter results is Baidu’s robotaxi service Apollo Go, which reached one million accumulated open road rides on July 20. In Q2 2022, Apollo Go provided a total of 287 thousand rides.

In addition, Baidu has also unveiled Apollo RT6 in July 2022. Apollo RT6, the 6th generation robotaxi vehicle and the first steering wheel-free one, is an all-electric model designed for fully driverless autonomous driving. The model is said to be put into operation in 2024, with a mass production cost of 250,000 yuan, which would decrease Apollo Go’s operation costs in the long term.

On the other hand, Baidu has taken a large step towards commercialization — Apollo Go has been granted to operate unmanned vehicles commercially in Chongqing and Wuhan, making Baidu currently the first and only company in China to provide fully unmanned self-driving travel services to the public on open roads.