Chinese tech giant Baidu Inc reported on Wednesday that its revenues reached 32.5 billion yuan ($4.47 billion) in the first quarter, up 3 percent year-on-year, with profits from its core businesses rising to 7.63 billion yuan, marking a 48 percent year-on-year increase.

Robin Li, co-founder and CEO of Baidu, said the company's revenue from core businesses grew 7 percent year-on-year during the January-March period, driven by the accelerated momentum of AI Cloud, which surged 42 percent year-on-year.

"We also achieved a pivotal milestone in our robotaxi business, as Apollo Go expanded internationally by entering Dubai and Abu Dhabi, reinforcing our commitment to bringing safe, comfortable, and affordable autonomous ride-hailing services to global markets," Li said.

Li added that he is confident that the company's AI-first strategy positions it to remain at the forefront and to capture long-term growth opportunities in the AI era.

Baidu launched the latest versions of its large language models, Ernie 4.5 Turbo and Ernie X1 Turbo, in April, delivering improved performance at significantly lower prices.

Apollo Go, its autonomous ride-hailing service, has expanded into Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. In May, it commenced open-road validation testing in Dubai. Apollo Go provided over 1.4 million rides in the first quarter, up 75 percent year-on-year, underscoring the accelerating momentum of its scaled operations.