Data as of:
LIVE
BIDU
Baidu, Inc. · Technology - Search & AI
$89.93
-3.17% this month
VERSUS
COMPARE
BABA
Alibaba Group Holding Limited · Technology - E-Commerce, Cloud & AI
$113.24
-12.15% this month
Comparison scoreboard
BABA LEADS 3/5AI Scorei
BIDU 27.9
BABA ✓41.1
1Y Returni
BIDU -33.51%
BABA ✓-29.67%
Fwd P/Ei
BIDU ✓1.73
BABA 1.82
Target Up.i
BIDU +63.24%
BABA ✓+64.20%
Op. Margini
BIDU ✓9.65%
BABA 7.29%
Metrics last refreshed: 9/19/2026
Quick take
BIDU vs BABA Stock Comparison: AI Score, Valuation, Performance and Upside
BIDU (Baidu) and BABA (Alibaba) both represent major Chinese AI investments — Baidu as an AI-native company pivoting from search to AI cloud and autonomous driving, versus Alibaba as a commerce and cloud giant integrating AI across its vast ecosystem. Baidu is a purer AI play; Alibaba is AI as a layer on top of e-commerce and cloud infrastructure.
BIDU vs BABA in the AI context is dedicated AI-native transformation (Baidu's ERNIE Bot, Apollo, AI cloud) versus AI as a horizontal capability layer enhancing China's largest e-commerce and cloud conglomerate (Alibaba's Tongyi Qianwen).
Live analysis · updated 9/19/2026
BABA holds the edge across 3 of 5 key metrics in this comparison. BABA has delivered stronger 1-year price return (-29.67% vs -33.51%), though BIDU has the better forward P/E setup (1.73x vs 1.82x for BABA). On fundamentals, BABA is growing revenue faster (8.60%), while BIDU maintains the higher operating margin (9.65%) — a classic growth-versus-profitability split. Analyst consensus implies similar upside for both: +63.24% for BIDU and +64.20% for BABA.
Normalized 1Y performance
BIDU
BABA
Recent returns
BIDU
BABA
Analyst price targets & sentiment
Human Wall Street analysts' price targets, typically implying a ~12-month view — a separate signal from this site's own AI Prediction Signal further down the page, which is a 5-/30-day machine-learning forecast based on price history alone.
BIDU · 32 analysts
STRONG BUYHOLDSTRONG SELL
Buy (1.6/5.0)
26 Buy / 5 Hold / 1 Sell
Price target range
analyst low$80.41
analyst high$207.02
analyst mean$146.81
current price$89.93
+63.2% upside to analyst mean
BABA · 39 analysts
STRONG BUYHOLDSTRONG SELL
Strong Buy (1.3/5.0)
38 Buy / 1 Hold / 1 Sell
Price target range
analyst low$95.37
analyst high$238.64
analyst mean$185.94
current price$113.24
+64.2% upside to analyst mean
Who should consider this stock?
BIDU may suit investors who:
- Want a purer-play Chinese AI investment with Baidu's ERNIE Bot, Apollo autonomous driving, and AI cloud as the primary growth drivers replacing legacy search advertising dependence
- Value Baidu's autonomous driving commercialization progress as unique long-term upside in the global AV race with actual paid robotaxi deployments in China
- See search query data as AI training fuel giving Baidu a data advantage in Chinese language model development
BABA may suit investors who:
- Want Chinese e-commerce and cloud exposure with AI capabilities being integrated into a massive existing revenue base serving hundreds of millions of consumers and enterprises
- Value Alibaba's corporate restructuring as an opportunity to unlock hidden value from diverse businesses that may be undervalued within the conglomerate structure
- See Alibaba Cloud's AI-driven enterprise growth as a re-acceleration catalyst for the company's largest growth segment
Performance & AI score
| Metric | BIDU | BABA |
|---|---|---|
| AI scorei | 27.9 | 41.1 |
| AI ranki | #2394 | #1084 |
| Latest closei | $89.93 | $113.24 |
| 1M returni | -3.17% | -12.15% |
| 6M returni | -21.29% | -6.64% |
| 1Y returni | -33.51% | -29.67% |
$10,000 invested — hypothetical growth (dividends reinvested)
How much would $10,000 be worth today if invested at the start of each period, with all dividends reinvested?
| Period | BIDU | BABA |
|---|---|---|
| 1Y ago | $6.65K (-33.5%) started 2025-09-18 | $7.1K (-29.0%) started 2025-09-18 |
| 5Y ago | $5.82K (-41.8%) started 2021-09-20 | $8.46K (-15.4%) started 2021-09-20 |
| 10Y ago | $4.87K (-51.3%) started 2016-09-19 | $12.44K (+24.4%) started 2016-09-19 |
Hypothetical — past performance does not guarantee future results.
Valuation & upside potential
| Metric | BIDU | BABA |
|---|---|---|
| Market capi | $30.67B | $281.47B |
| Trailing P/Ei | N/A | 24.56 |
| Forward P/Ei | 1.73 | 1.82 |
| Price/Salesi | 0.24 | 0.27 |
| EV/Revenuei | 0.00 | 0.20 |
| Analyst targeti | $146.81 | $185.94 |
| Target upsidei | +63.24% | +64.20% |
Growth, profitability & risk
| Metric | BIDU | BABA |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue growthi | -4.20% | 8.60% |
| Earnings growthi | -71.70% | -79.40% |
| EPS growthi | -71.70% | -79.40% |
| FCF margini | N/A | -7.91% |
| Operating margini | 9.65% | 7.29% |
| Profit margini | -2.90% | 7.04% |
| ROIC proxyi | -1.39% | 6.36% |
| Return on equityi | -1.39% | 6.36% |
| Dividend yieldi | 0.00% | 0.97% |
| Payout ratioi | 0.00% | 24.04% |
| Dividend growth streaki | N/A | 2 yrs |
| Betai | 0.57 | 0.50 |
| Debt/equityi | 38.26 | 23.93 |
| Current ratioi | 2.33 | 1.36 |
| Quick ratioi | 2.02 | 0.72 |
Correlation
Over the past year, BIDU and BABA have moved moderately in the same direction (correlation of 0.59), based on daily returns.
1Y
0.59
-1.0+1.0
5Y
0.76
-1.0+1.0
10Y
0.68
-1.0+1.0
Drawdown & downside risk
Lower drawdown and smaller single-period drops generally indicate a smoother ride, though they do not guarantee lower future risk.
1Y risk snapshot
BIDU max drawdowni45.51%
BABA max drawdowni49.47%
BIDU max wkly dropi14.30%
BABA max wkly dropi15.43%
5Y risk snapshot
BIDU max drawdowni57.69%
BABA max drawdowni64.46%
BIDU max wkly dropi21.71%
BABA max wkly dropi25.12%
10Y risk snapshot
BIDU max drawdowni77.47%
BABA max drawdowni80.09%
BIDU max wkly dropi26.18%
BABA max wkly dropi25.12%
Performance metrics by period
| Period | Metric | BIDU | BABA |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1Y | Growthi | -33.51% | -29.67% |
| CAGRi | -33.53% | -29.68% | |
| Volatilityi | 49.84% | 42.58% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | -0.66 | -0.72 | |
| Sortino ratioi | -0.94 | -1.08 | |
| Max drawdowni | 45.51% | 49.47% | |
| Current drawdowni | 44.67% | 39.64% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 21.37% | 25.30% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 24.51% | 28.21% | |
| Max daily dropi | 12.73% | 8.57% | |
| Max wkly dropi | 14.30% | 15.43% | |
| 5Y | Growthi | -41.79% | -20.57% |
| CAGRi | -10.27% | -4.51% | |
| Volatilityi | 52.05% | 51.48% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | -0.04 | 0.07 | |
| Sortino ratioi | -0.07 | 0.12 | |
| Max drawdowni | 57.69% | 64.46% | |
| Current drawdowni | 50.30% | 39.64% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 34.57% | 39.75% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 37.17% | 42.66% | |
| Max daily dropi | 12.73% | 12.51% | |
| Max wkly dropi | 21.71% | 25.12% | |
| 10Y | Growthi | -51.32% | +16.79% |
| CAGRi | -6.95% | +1.57% | |
| Volatilityi | 46.62% | 43.71% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | -0.02 | 0.15 | |
| Sortino ratioi | -0.03 | 0.23 | |
| Max drawdowni | 77.47% | 80.09% | |
| Current drawdowni | 73.54% | 62.06% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 48.98% | 39.55% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 54.17% | 48.36% | |
| Max daily dropi | 16.52% | 13.34% | |
| Max wkly dropi | 26.18% | 25.12% |
Business comparison
| Category | BIDU | BABA |
|---|---|---|
| Company | Baidu, Inc. | Alibaba Group Holding Limited |
| Sector | Technology - Search & AI | Technology - E-Commerce, Cloud & AI |
| Industry | Internet Content & Information | Internet Retail |
| Core business | Baidu operates China's dominant search engine and has pivoted aggressively toward AI — including ERNIE Bot (China's leading large language model), autonomous driving (Apollo platform and Robotaxi services in Beijing), cloud AI services, and AI chips — seeking to be China's answer to Google in both search and AI. | Alibaba operates China's dominant e-commerce platforms (Taobao, Tmall) plus Alibaba Cloud (China's largest cloud provider), logistics, digital media, and is developing Tongyi Qianwen (its own large language model) as the AI foundation for its cloud and commerce products. |
| Investor focus | Investors track Baidu's AI Cloud revenue (the fastest-growing segment), ERNIE Bot user adoption and monetization, Apollo Go autonomous driving commercialization progress, and core search advertising revenue as the cash-generating base funding the AI pivot. | Investors track Alibaba's AI-driven cloud revenue acceleration, integration of Tongyi Qianwen into commerce and enterprise software, competitive response to PDD and ByteDance in e-commerce, and the ongoing corporate restructuring to unlock value. |
BIDU strengths
- China's leading search engine with over 60% market share gives Baidu both search advertising cash flow and a massive training data set from user queries for AI development
- ERNIE Bot was among the first large-scale Chinese LLMs available to developers, giving Baidu an early ecosystem advantage in AI-native applications
- Apollo autonomous driving has more robotaxi deployment experience in China than any competitor, with paid commercial rides operating in multiple Chinese cities
BABA strengths
- Alibaba Cloud's enterprise customer base provides a large captive market for AI cloud services — Tongyi Qianwen integration into cloud products drives adoption of AI at scale
- E-commerce data from Taobao and Tmall provides rich consumer behavioral training data for AI personalization and recommendation systems
- Corporate restructuring creating separate business units may unlock significant valuation that was obscured by the conglomerate structure
Risks to watch — BIDU
- Baidu's search advertising revenue faces competition from ByteDance's Douyin (TikTok in China) and WeChat's in-app search features, which have attracted advertising budgets from Baidu
- Chinese AI development faces export controls on advanced AI chips from NVIDIA and other U.S. suppliers, potentially limiting Chinese AI companies' ability to train next-generation models at scale
- ADR structure means U.S. investors hold shares with VIE contractual arrangements rather than direct Chinese equity ownership
Risks to watch — BABA
- E-commerce market share pressure from PDD Holdings (Pinduoduo) and ByteDance (TikTok Shop) requires ongoing competitive response from Alibaba
- AI investments require significant capital expenditure in training and inference compute — Alibaba Cloud must compete with Huawei Cloud and Tencent Cloud while investing in AI capabilities
- Chinese government regulatory environment for e-commerce and technology continues to evolve — Alibaba operates under ongoing antitrust scrutiny
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