Key Points

• Baidu is joining forces with Uber to deploy its Apollo Go autonomous vehicles worldwide.

• The partnership could represent a significant opportunity for the Chinese tech giant.

• 10 stocks we like better than Baidu ›

Shares of Baidu (NASDAQ: BIDU) charged sharply higher on Tuesday, surging as much as 9%. As of 12:46 p.m. ET, the stock was still up 8.5%.

The catalyst that sent the Chinese tech giant higher was a high-profile partnership for its self-driving car platform.

Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Continue »

Image source: Baidu.

A foot in the door of a worldwide market

In a joint press release, Baidu revealed that it had joined forces with Uber (NYSE: UBER) to accelerate the deployment of autonomous vehicles worldwide. The pair announced a "multi-year strategic partnership to deploy thousands of Baidu's Apollo Go autonomous vehicles (AVs) on the Uber platform across multiple global markets outside of the U.S. and mainland China." The press release went on to say that the focus would be on "increasing the supply of affordable and reliable ridesharing options."

A partnership of this magnitude could be a huge catalyst for Baidu. Uber is widely recognized as the world's leading ride-hailing and delivery platform. For context, the company facilitated 3 billion rides in the first quarter, with more than 170 million monthly active platform customers. Furthermore, the number of both rides and riders continue to increase at a healthy double-digit clip.

Baidu's Apollo Go fleet already numbers more than 1,000 driverless vehicles globally, earning it the title of the world's leading autonomous ride-hailing service.

The first vehicle deployments of the partnership are expected to occur in Asia and the Middle East later this year. "After launch, if a rider requests a qualifying Uber trip, they may be presented with the option to have their trip fulfilled by a fully driverless Apollo Go autonomous vehicle," according to the press release.

Baidu is often called "the Google of China," and search is the company's core business. Baidu has expanded beyond its original mandate into streaming video, artificial intelligence (AI), cloud services, and more, but its stock has been stuck in neutral in recent years. If the partnership with Uber bears fruit, it could mark the next big thing for Baidu.

Like any company based in China, Baidu carries an element of additional risk. That said, at just 9 times trailing-12-month earnings, the stock is attractively priced given the breadth of the opportunity.

Should you invest $1,000 in Baidu right now?

Before you buy stock in Baidu, consider this:

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Baidu wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $680,559!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,005,670!*

Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 1,053% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 180% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.

See the 10 stocks »

*Stock Advisor returns as of July 15, 2025

Danny Vena has positions in Baidu. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Baidu and Uber Technologies. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Growth investors feast on volatility, but the turbulence has proved challenging for Cathie Wood. The founder and CEO of Ark Invest has taken a hit in the current climate. Her largest exchange-traded fund has plummeted nearly 20% in 2025, but it's still trading higher over the past year.

Wood publishes her firm's daily transactions. She was particularly busy with the market moving higher yesterday. Ark added to its existing positions in Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA), Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ: AMD), and Baidu (NASDAQ: BIDU) on Monday. Let's take a closer look at the Wood's three fresh purchases.

Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Continue »

1. Nvidia

Shares of Nvidia have fallen 26% this year, and that's after a bounce in Tuesday's trading. It's a laggard in the near term for Ark's performance. Zoom out, though, and the artificial intelligence (AI) chip leader starts looking a lot better. It's up 24% over the past year, a dazzling 14-bagger over the past five years.

Nvidia has come a long way since its early days, when the top dog in graphics processing units was appreciated largely by fans of PC gaming. Nvidia now finds itself at the intersection of buzzy trends, but the strongest is clearly the AI revolution. Developers need a lot of computing power to train and run their AI models, and Nvidia is the leading provider in the chips that make these language learning models fly.

Image source: Getty Images.

There have been some headwinds lately. In January came the announcement from China's DeepSeek that it could deliver respectable AI results with older Nvidia chips. Lately, the trade war has been leaving its mark. Between the effective shipment ban to China and fears of an economic slowdown, investors have soured on Nvidia's near-term prospects.

Two different analysts slashed their profit targets ahead of Tuesday's open. Vivek Arya of Bank of America lowered his price goal from $160 to $150. Tom O'Malley at Barclays took his target down $20 to $155. Estimates remain roughly where they were three months ago, when the shares trading much higher. Wall Street pros seem to think valuation multiples should contract to account for consumer risk and one-time hits on China. The silver lining is that both analysts are still bullish on the shares, and even the new price points offer more than 50% of upside from today's levels.

2. Advanced Micro Devices

3. Baidu

Let's end with a stock that's actually trading higher in 2025. China's leading search engine is barely positive this year, but it is trading lower over the past year. Chinese stocks have been surprisingly resilient in 2025, despite the trade tiff with the U.S. government. It probably helps that Baidu generates most of its revenue on its home turf.

Baidu isn't perfect, though. Growth has been stagnant. Unlike the double-digit percentage increased for Nvidia and AMD, Baidu has pieced together three straight quarters of small year-over-year declines. It should return to top-line gains starting in the current quarter, but there are clearly some growing pains. Despite its search dominance, and even though it's dipping its toes into everything from autonomous driving to computer vision and and AI, Baidu's revenue is lower than it was three years ago.

The good news for Baidu is that's it the relative bargain in this shopping list. The stock is trading for just eight times this year's net income target. Sometimes Wood can be a value investor, too.

Should you invest $1,000 in Nvidia right now?

Before you buy stock in Nvidia, consider this:

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Nvidia wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $561,046!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $606,106!*

Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 811% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 153% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.

See the 10 stocks »

*Stock Advisor returns as of April 21, 2025

Bank of America is an advertising partner of Motley Fool Money. Rick Munarriz has positions in Baidu. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Advanced Micro Devices, Baidu, Bank of America, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool recommends Barclays Plc. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.