On September 13, Baidu announced the establishment of an independent venture capital company (Baidu Venture). Baidu founder, chairman and CEO Robin Li will personally serve as chairman and participate in the evaluation and judgment of important projects.

Baidu stated that the newly established Baidu Venture Capital will focus on artificial intelligence, as well as next-generation technological innovation projects such as AR and VR, and focus on investing in early-stage projects. The first phase of the fund will reach US$200 million.

It is reported that Baidu Venture Capital will be independent of Baidu's existing investment and M&A team, and will achieve more efficient investment operations through innovative evaluation mechanisms and accelerated decision-making processes.

Robin Li will serve as both chairman of the board and chairman of the investment committee. In addition, Baidu Ventures will also invite a group of heavyweight scientists from Baidu in the field of artificial intelligence to serve as consultants to provide support for investment decisions and post-investment management.

The establishment of an independent venture capital company can be regarded as a continuation of Baidu’s comprehensive shift to artificial intelligence strategy.

In 2013, Baidu established the Deep Learning Research Institute. In 2014, Andrew Ng, a global leader in artificial intelligence, was hired to join as Baidu's chief scientist. According to data provided by Baidu, in recent years, Baidu has invested about 15% of its operating income in technology research and development, and has successively established a big data laboratory, a deep learning laboratory and a Silicon Valley artificial intelligence laboratory.

Robin Li has pointed out to the industry many times recently that the next stage of the Internet is artificial intelligence. At the Baidu World Conference held on September 1, Robin Li announced that "artificial intelligence is the core of Baidu's core" and released the carrier of Baidu's artificial intelligence technology - Baidu Brain, which not only showcased Baidu's latest achievements in the fields of voice, images, natural language processing and user portraits.

The establishment of an independent venture capital company by Baidu this time to invest exclusively in artificial intelligence can be seen as Baidu’s independent investment in research and development while also laying out future technologies through capital means, placing double insurance on its artificial intelligence strategy.