Baidu Opens Silicon Valley Lab, Appoints Andrew Ng as Head of Baidu Research

SUNNYVALE, Calif., May 16, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU), the leading Chinese language Internet search provider, today announced the appointment of pioneering Artificial Intelligence (AI) researcher Andrew Ng as Chief Scientist of Baidu. Mr. Ng will lead Baidu Research, with labs in Beijing and Silicon Valley.

Baidu made the announcement at the grand opening of its U.S. R&D Center in Sunnyvale, California. The new facility adds research to Baidu's existing development capabilities in Silicon Valley.

Mr. Ng is widely regarded as a leading figure in the field of AI. He is a faculty member in Computer Science at Stanford University, where he teaches machine learning and has published extensively on topics related to robotics and AI. Andrew Ng founded and led Google's Deep Learning team, and is known for his work on building massive scale artificial neural networks. Mr. Ng also co-founded Coursera, which offers online courses from top universities, and will retain his position as chairman of Coursera's board.

"We are delighted to welcome Andrew to our team. As a true visionary and key contributor in the field of Artificial Intelligence, Andrew is the ideal individual to lead our research efforts as we enter an era where AI plays an increasingly pronounced role," said Robin Li, Baidu's chairman and chief executive officer.

The research labs currently under the umbrella of Baidu Research are the Silicon Valley AI Lab, the Beijing Deep Learning Lab (formerly known as the Institute of Deep Learning), and the Beijing Big Data Lab.

"Baidu Research and its labs will bring together top-flight Chinese, American, and global research talent to advance Baidu's technological leadership," said Jing Wang, Baidu's senior vice president. "We are confident that our new U. S. R&D Center will help bring the benefits of tomorrow's technology to industry and more broadly to society."

"Baidu is a company with long term vision and deep commitment. I am excited to help Baidu advance fundamental technologies in AI and other areas that can truly change the world," said Mr. Ng.

Baidu launched its Institute of Deep Learning in 2013 and has made significant strides in image recognition and image-based search, voice recognition, natural language processing and semantic intelligence, machine translation, and advertising matching. These foundational technologies have helped Baidu secure a leading position in search, as well as the fast-growing mobile Internet market in China.

Andrew Ng was named in 2013 to the Time 100, the list of "100 Most Influential People in the World," as well as to Fortune's "40 under 40" list. Mr. Ng holds a bachelor of science degree in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University, a master's degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley.

About Baidu

Baidu, Inc. is the leading Chinese language Internet search provider. As a technology-based media company, Baidu aims to provide the best and most equitable way for people to find what they're looking for. In addition to serving individual Internet search users, Baidu provides an effective platform for businesses to reach potential customers. Baidu's ADSs trade on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol "BIDU". Currently, ten ADSs represent one Class A ordinary share.

Safe Harbor Statement

This announcement contains forward-looking statements. These statements are made under the "safe harbor" provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as "will," "expects," "anticipates," "future," "intends," "plans," "believes," "estimates," "confident" and similar statements. Among other things, the quotations from management in this announcement, as well as Baidu's strategic and operational plans, contain forward-looking statements. Baidu may also make written or oral forward-looking statements in its periodic reports to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, in its annual report to shareholders, in press releases and other written materials and in oral statements made by its officers, directors or employees to third parties.  Statements that are not historical facts, including statements about Baidu's beliefs and expectations, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. A number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement, including but not limited to the following: our growth strategies; our future business development, including development of new products and services; our ability to attract and retain users and customers; competition in the Chinese and Japanese language Internet search markets; competition for online marketing customers; changes in our revenues and certain cost or expense items as a percentage of our revenues; the outcome of ongoing, or any future, litigation or arbitration, including those relating to intellectual property rights; the expected growth of the Chinese language Internet search market and the number of Internet and broadband users in China; Chinese governmental policies relating to the Internet and Internet search providers and general economic conditions in China, Japan and elsewhere. Further information regarding these and other risks is included in our annual report on Form 20-F and other documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Baidu does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement, except as required under applicable law.  All information provided in this press release and in the attachments is as of the date of the press release, and Baidu undertakes no duty to update such information, except as required under applicable law. 

For investor and media inquiries, please contact:

Sharon Ng
Baidu, Inc.
Tel: +86-10-5992-3776
ir@baidu.com

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SOURCE Baidu, Inc.