Baidu AI business growth boosts confidence, Sci-Tech Artificial Intelligence ETF Yinhua rises 1.06%

As of 10:40 AM on February 27, the Shanghai Composite Index decreased by 0.07%, the Shenzhen Component Index fell by 0.52%, and the ChiNext Index declined by 1.31%. In the ETF sector, the STAR Artificial Intelligence ETF Yinhua (588930) increased by 1.06%, with constituent stock Yuntian Lifei-U (688343.SH) rising over 10%. Additionally, Sikan Technology (688583.SH), CloudWalk Technology-UW (688327.SH), and Xin Yuan Shares (688521.SH) gained over 5%. UCloud-W (688158.SH), Yaxin Security (688225.SH), Xinghuo Technology-U (688031.SH), Qi An Xin-U (688561.SH), Zhongke Xingtu (688568.SH), and Rongsoft Technology (688088.SH) also saw gains.

On the news front, Baidu released its financial report for Q4 and the full year of 2025, showing a significant increase in revenue from its AI business. In Q4 2025, AI revenue accounted for 43% of Baidu’s general business income; for the full year, Baidu’s total revenue reached 129.1 billion RMB, with AI-related revenue hitting 40 billion RMB, demonstrating the effectiveness of its AI strategic transformation. AI has become the company’s core growth engine. This performance confirms the huge potential of AI commercialization and boosts market confidence in the AI sector, especially regarding profitability prospects on the application side.

Bohai Securities stated that during the Spring Festival, major domestic companies ByteDance, Alibaba, Tencent, and Baidu invested over 4.5 billion RMB through various means such as red envelopes, free orders, and tech gifts to accelerate AI application penetration into the consumer market. Currently, multiple catalysts are driving AI applications, and the industry’s commercialization inflection point may arrive earlier than expected. Driven by faster model iteration and large internet companies’ application promotion, the AI computing industry chain presents relatively certain investment opportunities. It is also recommended to focus on leading enterprises with strong AI implementation capabilities and scene adaptation advantages on the application side.

CITIC Securities noted that recently, Anthropic launched enterprise-level plugin and ClaudeCowork platforms. Their relationship with software vendors is more about integration than replacement. The narrative that “AI is eroding software” remains largely at the storytelling level, lacking basic logic and common sense support. Considering macro expectations and AI progress, as the U.S. macroeconomy gradually warms and AI revenue contribution increases, performance improvements are expected to gradually change market perceptions of U.S. software stocks. Currently, we advise medium- to long-term investors to actively seize oversold opportunities, focusing on leading application software companies with strong balance sheets and platform attributes, as well as foundational software and cybersecurity firms with sustained fundamentals.