--- title: "Baidu is down 48% this year as more than 1,000 Hong Kong residents get free Apollo Go rides" description: "Hankook Tire is widening Apollo Go's tire supply from four Chinese cities to ten and Hong Kong opened its first public robotaxi trial this week, while Baidu trades near 2022 lows. Both bets are physical; neither carries a revenue number, while a fraud suit attacks the AI story they are meant to support." publisher: "The Inference" section: "Robotics & Defense" published: 2026-10-22T16:06:48.362Z modified: 2026-10-22T16:06:48.362Z canonical: https://theinference.org/article/baidu-is-down-48-this-year-as-more-than-1-000-hong-kong-residents-get-free-apollo-go-rides language: en keywords: "Baidu, Apollo Go, Robotaxis, Autonomous Vehicles, China" --- # Baidu is down 48% this year as more than 1,000 Hong Kong residents get free Apollo Go rides > Hankook Tire is widening Apollo Go's tire supply from four Chinese cities to ten and Hong Kong opened its first public robotaxi trial this week, while Baidu trades near 2022 lows. Both bets are physical; neither carries a revenue number, while a fraud suit attacks the AI story they are meant to support. Hong Kong put its [first large-scale public robotaxi trial](https://www.msn.com/en-xl/news/other/1000-hongkongers-to-ride-baidu-s-autonomous-vehicles-in-city-first-public-trial/ar-AA2ehfoN) on the street this week. From October 21, more than 1,000 residents of the Tung Chung district will ride [Baidu](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/baidu)'s Apollo Go cars free around a 5.1km, 15-minute loop until November 3, a backup operator aboard each vehicle [1][2]. The same week, on October 22, South Korea's Hankook Tire said it will [widen supply of its electric-vehicle iON ST AS tire to Apollo Go from four Chinese cities to ten](https://biz.chosun.com/en/en-industry/2026/10/22/QFV4462GQREEFI5VIXO2JTJFVQ/), Beijing and Chongqing among them, and wire tire data into the fleet's pressure and wear alerts [3][4]. ## The market pays 2022 prices for an AI-first story Baidu's Nasdaq shares [closed at $78.84 on October 21](https://www.tradingview.com/news/seekingalpha:c8bc378b0094b:0-baidu-nears-2022-lows-as-search-revenue-declines-and-ai-push-fails-to-lift-stock/), down 2.1% on the day and 48% this year, near levels last traded in late 2022 [5][6]. That is a $21.78 billion market value, 1.49 times sales against a historical median of 2.66 [5]. Apollo Go, the driverless-taxi arm, is the asset inside that quote: 28 cities, more than 350 million autonomous kilometers driven, over 240 million of them with nobody in the driver's seat [7]. ## The new bets are physical, and none are revenue Baidu publishes no revenue line for Apollo Go. Its [August 18 results](https://ir.baidu.com/news-releases/news-release-details/baidu-announces-second-quarter-2026-results) price the engine the robotaxis must replace: search advertising fell 19% to RMB13.1 billion, now 52% of General Business revenue, the unit excluding video-streaming arm iQiyi, against 62% a year earlier, and legacy revenue fell 23% [7]. AI cloud infrastructure grew 50% to RMB7.3 billion yet shrank 17% from the first quarter, and the AI core fell 8% sequentially [7]. Group revenue slipped 4% to RMB31.3 billion, and RMB11.4 billion of capital spending against RMB3.4 billion of operating cash flow left free cash flow at minus RMB8.0 billion [7]. *Chart: **Three years without growth: revenue flat, profit thinned** Line chart of Baidu quarterly revenue and net income in US dollar billions from Q3 2023 to Q2 2026, showing revenue flat around $4.6 billion while net income thins to $0.34 billion with one loss quarter* *Quarterly total revenue and net income attributable to Baidu, USD billions, from SEC filings retrieved October 22, 2026. [8]* *Chart: **The crossover that did not hold: search ads vs the rest** Column chart comparing Baidu General Business online marketing revenue with non-advertising revenue across Q2 2025, Q1 2026 and Q2 2026 in RMB billions, showing non-advertising revenue passing search once in Q1 2026 then falling back* *Baidu General Business revenue by stream, RMB billions, management figures from the Q2 2026 results, August 18, 2026; unaudited. [7]* ## The bull case runs on other people's money The believers answer with commitments. Hankook has supplied Apollo Go since signing with Baidu in March 2025, and Hong Kong's Transport Department cleared driverless testing on Airport Island in July, with Baidu's cars logging more than 280,000km in the city [3][1]. Baidu holds RMB283.1 billion ($41.7 billion) of cash and investments as it defines them, about double its market value [7]. Against that, insiders sold $2.0 million of stock across 12 months and bought none [5], the shares still trade near 19 times forward earnings against a 12.75 sector median [9], and a [class action whose period closed on August 17](https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/bidu-investors-have-opportunity-to-lead-baidu-inc-securities-fraud-lawsuit-302913071.html), the day before results, alleges Baidu overstated AI's power to offset the search decline [10]. The suit and the AI cushion's earlier shrink were covered here on [October 15](https://theinference.org/article/baidu-s-ai-cushion-shrank-8-its-defense-is-a-siri-slot-apple-has-not-shipped) and [September 27](https://theinference.org/article/baidu-sold-ai-as-the-cure-for-its-search-decline-its-own-table-shows-the-cure-shrinking). ## Three dates decide it The free rides end on November 3 [1]. The lead-plaintiff deadline is November 13 [10]. Then the next quarterly report shows whether AI cloud's dip was a pause or a pattern. A tire contract sizes a fleet. It cannot price one. ## Takeaway Hong Kong's first public robotaxi trial and Hankook's ten-city tire deal widen Apollo Go's footprint, but with no revenue line for the unit, search ads down 19% and a fraud suit pending, November 13 and the next quarterly report carry the news. ## Sources 1. [South China Morning Post (via MSN), "1,000 Hongkongers to ride Baidu's autonomous vehicles in city-first public trial", 15 October 2026](https://www.msn.com/en-xl/news/other/1000-hongkongers-to-ride-baidu-s-autonomous-vehicles-in-city-first-public-trial/ar-AA2ehfoN) 2. [South China Morning Post (video), "1,000 Hongkongers to ride Baidu's autonomous vehicles in city's first public trial", 22 October 2026](https://www.scmp.com/video/hong-kong/3371774/1000-hongkongers-ride-baidus-autonomous-vehicles-citys-first-public-trial) 3. [Seoul Economic Daily, "Hankook Tire Expands iON Supply to Baidu Robotaxi Fleet in China", 22 October 2026](https://en.sedaily.com/finance/2026/10/22/hankook-tire-expands-ion-supply-to-baidu-robotaxi-fleet-in) 4. [Chosun Biz, "Hankook Tire expands Baidu robotaxi tire supply across 10 Chinese cities", 22 October 2026](https://biz.chosun.com/en/en-industry/2026/10/22/QFV4462GQREEFI5VIXO2JTJFVQ/) 5. [GuruFocus, "Baidu (BIDU) Stock Nears 2022 Lows Amid Continued Revenue Declines and Mixed Growth Signals", 21 October 2026](https://www.gurufocus.com/news/9134806/baidu-bidu-stock-nears-2022-lows-amid-continued-revenue-declines-and-mixed-growth-signals) 6. [Seeking Alpha via TradingView, "Baidu nears 2022 lows as search revenue declines and AI push fails to lift stock", 21 October 2026](https://www.tradingview.com/news/seekingalpha:c8bc378b0094b:0-baidu-nears-2022-lows-as-search-revenue-declines-and-ai-push-fails-to-lift-stock/) 7. [Baidu Investor Relations, "Baidu Announces Second Quarter 2026 Results", 18 August 2026](https://ir.baidu.com/news-releases/news-release-details/baidu-announces-second-quarter-2026-results) 8. [Baidu, quarterly figures from its SEC filings, retrieved 22 October 2026](https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0001329099) 9. [Insider Monkey via Yahoo Finance, "Baidu (BIDU) Expands Its AI Business, but the Core Revenue Recovery Remains Uncertain", 21 October 2026](https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/ai/articles/baidu-bidu-expands-ai-business-140757461.html) 10. [The Rosen Law Firm via PR Newswire, "BIDU Investors Have Opportunity to Lead Baidu, Inc. Securities Fraud Lawsuit", 19 October 2026](https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/bidu-investors-have-opportunity-to-lead-baidu-inc-securities-fraud-lawsuit-302913071.html) --- Baidu is down 48% this year as more than 1,000 Hong Kong residents get free Apollo Go rides — The Inference. Canonical: https://theinference.org/article/baidu-is-down-48-this-year-as-more-than-1-000-hong-kong-residents-get-free-apollo-go-rides