Tech giant Baidu Inc reported on Tuesday that its total revenue reached 133.1 billion yuan ($18.24 billion) in 2024, with profits from its core businesses rising to 23.4 billion yuan, marking a 21 percent year-on-year increase.

Robin Li, co-founder and CEO of Baidu, said in a statement that 2024 marked a pivotal year in the company's ongoing transformation from an internet-centric to an artificial intelligence-first business.

Li stressed that Baidu has been steadfast in advancing the AI transformation, enhancing search functions to deliver a more AI-native user experience. "With our strategic foresight increasingly validated, we expect our AI investments to deliver more significant results in 2025," Li said.

Baidu's financial results revealed that its large language model, Ernie Bot, processed approximately 1.65 billion API (application programming interface) calls daily in December 2024, representing a substantial 33-fold increase compared to the same period in 2023.

In the field of autonomous driving, Baidu's autonomous ride-hailing service Apollo Go provided over 1.1 million rides in the fourth quarter of 2024, reflecting a 36 percent year-on-year growth.

Additionally, in November 2024, Apollo Go was granted permits to conduct autonomous driving tests on public roads in Hong Kong, becoming the first and only service in the region authorized for robotaxi testing.