Baidu Kunlun chip business recently completed the signing of an independent financing agreement with a post-investment valuation of approximately RMB 13 billion ($2 billion).
Baidu Kunlun chip is a cloud-based AI general chip independently developed by Baidu in July 2018. As one of the important businesses of its AI ecology, the Kunlun chip business will further develop the chip field after independent financing.
Baidu Kunlun 1 was successfully taped out in 2019 and mass-produced in 2020. As of now, it has already mass-produced more than 20,000 units, which are widely used in scenarios such as search engines and intelligent cloud eco-partners.
The Baidu Kunlun 2, which is under development, will be in mass production in the second half of 2021, with a further 3x performance improvement over Kunlun 1.
This chip gives the company a more complete software and hardware integration capability, forming an AI full-stack technology layout from chips to deep learning frameworks, core algorithms, platforms, and ecologies.