Chinese tech heavyweight Baidu Inc delivered better-than-expected financial results in 2023 on Wednesday, with artificial intelligence technology becoming a new growth driver for the company.

Baidu's total revenue reached up to 134.6 billion yuan ($18.96 billion), an increase of 9 percent year-on-year, while its non-GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) net profit stood at 28.7 billion yuan last year, surging 39 percent year-on-year.?

Robin Li, co-founder and CEO of Baidu, said throughout 2023, the company made significant strides in advancing Ernie Bot, its ChatGPT-like large language model, reinventing its products and services, and achieving breakthroughs in monetization. Concurrently, its core business remained resilient and healthy.

"Looking ahead, our commitment to generative AI and foundation models remains unwavering, paving the way for the creation of a new growth engine," Li said. As of the end of December 2023, the number of Baidu's Ernie Bot users surpassed 100 million.?

In the fourth quarter, Baidu's total revenue stood at around 35 billion yuan, up 6 percent year-on-year. Its non-GAAP net profit rose 44 percent year-on-year to 7.8 billion yuan.?

Apollo Go, Baidu's autonomous ride-hailing service, provided about 839,000 rides in the fourth quarter of 2023, up 49 percent year-on-year. As of Jan 2, 2024, Apollo Go has accumulated over 5 million rides on public roads.?

The company also said its "robotaxi" crossed two bridges over the Yangtze River on Tuesday in Wuhan, capital of Hubei province, making the city China's first to carry out commercial autonomous ride-hailing services spanning the river. So far, China has more than 20 cities which have launched policies supporting autonomous driving tests.