Beijing – In a move signaling China’s accelerated push towards self-sufficiency in advanced technology, Baidu announced the development of two new artificial intelligence chips. This announcement comes amid escalating tensions between Beijing and Washington over US restrictions on exporting advanced semiconductors to Chinese companies.
During its annual Baidu World technology conference, the company revealed the M100 chip, designed for inference and slated for release in early 2026, and the M300 chip, capable of both training and inference tasks, scheduled for launch in 2027. This strategic move is part of Baidu’s broader initiative, which began in 2011, to develop its own processors and reduce its reliance on foreign suppliers like the American company, Nvidia.
Baidu aims to enhance computing power through what it calls “super nodes,” connecting hundreds of chips within a single network. This approach seeks to compensate for limitations imposed on the performance of individual chips. The company also plans to launch the Tianzhi 256 processor, comprising 256 P800 chips, in the first half of next year, followed by a more powerful version with 512 chips in the second half of 2026.
Simultaneously, Baidu unveiled an upgraded version of its ERNIE large language model, capable of processing text, analyzing images, and understanding video, placing it in direct competition with global models like GPT and Gemini.
Separately, Tencent, China’s largest social media and gaming company, reported strong revenue growth of 15 percent in the third quarter of 2025, driven by increased demand for games and AI services. Its revenues reached 192.9 billion yuan ($27.08 billion), exceeding analysts’ expectations. Domestic game revenues rose to 42.8 billion yuan, while international game revenues reached 20.8 billion yuan. The company attributed this strong performance to the success of its popular games such as Honor of Kings and Peacekeeper Elite, as well as the new Delta Force game. Advertising revenues also increased by 21 percent to 36.2 billion yuan, thanks to AI technologies.
