Baidu’s artificial intelligence chip unit Kunlun raised about USD 2 billion during its last funding round, Reuters reported, citing a source with direct knowledge of the matter. The round was led by Chinese private equity firm CITIC Private Equity Funds Management (CPE), with other investors including IDG Capital, Legend Capital and industry fund Oriza Hua.
“Kunlun chip business has recently completed a round of financing. We will release more information in due course,” Baidu confirmed to Reuters. The company did not provide any further information.
Kunlun chips are for the moment mainly used by Baidu on smart electric vehicles and cloud computing. The company is thinking of commercializing its AI chip design capabilities, with the aim of making the Kunlun unit a standalone company, according to the source. Baidu also operates another chip unit called Honghu.
The company last week started raising a targeted USD 3 billion as part of its plan for a secondary listing in Hong Kong. The company has its first listing on the NASDAQ.
