Robin Li

Robin Li
Born	17 11, 1968
Birthplace	Yangquan, Shanxi, China
Nationality	Chinese
Occupation	Software engineer, internet entrepreneur
Title	Co-founder and CEO of Baidu; Chairman of iQIYI
Known for	Co-founding Baidu; creating the RankDex search engine
Education	University at Buffalo (MS)
Spouse(s)	Ma Dongmin (马东敏)
Children	4

Robin Li (Template:Zh; born 17 November 1968) is a Chinese software engineer and internet entrepreneur who co-founded Baidu Inc., one of the world's largest internet and technology companies and China's dominant search engine. Born in the industrial city of Yangquan in Shanxi province, Li rose from modest beginnings to build a company that fundamentally shaped how hundreds of millions of Chinese-language internet users access information. He studied information management at Peking University before earning a master's degree in computer science from the University at Buffalo in the United States. In 1996, while working in the American technology industry, Li developed RankDex, a search engine that pioneered the use of hyperlink analysis for ranking web pages — a concept that preceded and paralleled the development of similar technologies at Google. In 2000, Li returned to China and co-founded Baidu with Eric Xu, growing it into a publicly traded company listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange in 2005. Li has served as CEO of Baidu since January 2004 and has guided the company through successive phases of growth, from its origins as a search engine to its current positioning as a leader in artificial intelligence. He also serves as chairman of iQIYI, a major Chinese online entertainment platform. Li served as a member of the 12th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference from 2013 to 2018.

Early Life

Robin Li was born on 17 November 1968 in Yangquan, a coal-mining city in Shanxi province, China. His father, Li Guifu (李贵富), raised the family in this industrial region of northern China. Growing up in Yangquan during the 1970s and 1980s, Li came of age during a period of rapid economic reform in China under the policies of Deng Xiaoping, which would eventually open the country to foreign technology and investment.

Li showed an early aptitude for academics. As a young student, he developed interests that would later lead him to the intersection of information science and computer technology. His academic performance was strong enough to gain him admission to Peking University, one of the most prestigious institutions of higher education in China, where he would begin to develop the technical foundations for his later career in internet technology.

The environment in which Li was raised — a city built around heavy industry rather than technology — makes his later trajectory into the internet industry notable. Yangquan was far removed from the centers of Chinese academic and technological activity, such as Beijing and Shanghai, and Li's path from this provincial city to the upper echelons of the global technology industry required significant determination and academic achievement.

Education

Li enrolled at Peking University in Beijing, where he studied information management and earned a Bachelor of Management degree. Peking University, known in Chinese as Beida, is one of China's top-ranked universities, and Li's time there provided him with a foundational understanding of how information is organized, stored, and retrieved — knowledge that would prove central to his later work in search engine technology.

After completing his undergraduate studies, Li traveled to the United States for graduate education. He enrolled in the Department of Computer Science at the University at Buffalo (part of the State University of New York system), where he earned a Master of Science degree in computer science. His graduate studies at the University at Buffalo deepened his expertise in computer science and exposed him to the rapidly evolving landscape of American internet technology during the mid-1990s, a period when the World Wide Web was emerging as a transformative commercial and informational platform.

The combination of Li's Chinese education in information management and his American training in computer science gave him a distinctive interdisciplinary perspective that would inform his approach to building search engine technology.

Career

Early Career in the United States

After completing his master's degree, Li remained in the United States and entered the American technology industry. During this period, he worked on developing search and information retrieval technologies, gaining practical experience in the field that would define his career.

In 1996, while still based in the United States, Li created RankDex, a search engine technology that was among the first to use hyperlink analysis to rank web pages. The core innovation of RankDex was its method of analyzing the structure of links between web pages to determine their relative importance and relevance — the principle that a page linked to by many other pages is likely more valuable than one with few inbound links. Li received a U.S. patent for this hyperlink analysis technology. This approach was conceptually similar to the PageRank algorithm developed by Larry Page and Sergey Brin at Stanford University, which became the foundation of the Google search engine. Li's patent and the RankDex technology have been cited in discussions about the intellectual origins of modern web search ranking systems.

Li also published academic work related to his search engine research. He contributed to the IEEE publication record with work on information retrieval and web-based search technologies.

Founding of Baidu

In 2000, Li returned to China with the goal of launching a Chinese-language search engine. He co-founded Baidu Inc. alongside Eric Xu (Xu Yong), establishing the company in Beijing. The name "Baidu" is derived from a poem written during the Song dynasty and roughly translates to "hundreds of times," reflecting the persistent search for an ideal.

The timing of Baidu's founding coincided with a period of explosive growth in Chinese internet usage. While global search engines such as Google and Yahoo were available to Chinese users, Li recognized an opportunity to build a search engine specifically optimized for the Chinese language, which presents unique challenges for information retrieval due to the nature of Chinese characters, the absence of spaces between words, and the complexity of Chinese-language web content.

Baidu initially operated as a backend search technology provider, supplying search results to other Chinese web portals. The company subsequently launched its own direct-to-consumer search engine, baidu.com, which allowed users to search the Chinese-language web directly. This transition from a backend provider to a consumer-facing search engine proved to be a pivotal strategic decision that set the stage for Baidu's rapid growth.

Baidu's NASDAQ Listing and Growth

On 5 August 2005, Baidu was listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange under the ticker symbol BIDU. The initial public offering was one of the most dramatic technology IPOs in years, with the stock price surging significantly on its first day of trading. The successful IPO brought international attention to both Baidu and to the broader Chinese internet sector, and it established Li as one of the most prominent technology entrepreneurs in China.

Under Li's leadership as CEO — a position he has held since January 2004 — Baidu expanded rapidly beyond its core search engine business. The company launched a range of internet services and platforms, including Baidu Baike (an online encyclopedia), Baidu Tieba (an online forum platform), Baidu Maps, and various other products aimed at serving the growing Chinese internet user base. Baidu's dominance in the Chinese search market made it one of the most visited websites in the world and drew frequent comparisons to Google, which had a more limited presence in the Chinese market.

The company also faced competitive and regulatory challenges. Google's complex relationship with the Chinese market — including its partial withdrawal in 2010 over censorship concerns — affected the competitive landscape in which Baidu operated. Baidu was also involved in intellectual property disputes; in 2005, the company faced scrutiny over issues related to music piracy on its platform, with record companies alleging that Baidu facilitated unauthorized access to copyrighted music through deep-linking.

Controversies

Li's tenure as CEO of Baidu has been marked by several significant controversies that drew public criticism and regulatory scrutiny.

One of the most notable incidents was the death of Wei Zexi in 2016, a college student who sought medical treatment for a rare form of cancer based on information he found through Baidu's search advertising. Wei had discovered a hospital offering an experimental treatment through Baidu's promoted search results; the treatment proved ineffective, and Wei died. The case sparked widespread public outrage in China and led to investigations by Chinese regulators into Baidu's advertising practices, particularly regarding the promotion of medical services and hospitals through paid search results. The incident raised fundamental questions about the ethical responsibilities of search engine companies in curating and presenting medical information to users.

Baidu also faced criticism for advertising by unqualified hospitals on its Baidu Tieba platform, as well as allegations of ad fraud within its advertising network. These controversies contributed to periods of reputational damage for the company and prompted Baidu to implement reforms to its advertising review processes.

Pivot to Artificial Intelligence

In the mid-2010s, Li began steering Baidu toward artificial intelligence as a core strategic priority, positioning the company as not merely a search engine but as an AI-driven technology company. This strategic pivot encompassed investments in deep learning, natural language processing, autonomous driving (through the Apollo platform), cloud computing, and smart devices.

By 2025, Li had become one of the most prominent advocates for AI's role in China's economic development. Speaking at the Baidu World conference in November 2025, Li articulated a vision in which AI would become the driver of China's "new productive forces," a concept aligned with the Chinese government's broader economic strategy. Li stated that AI should permeate "every cell" of the Chinese economy, advocating for the deep integration of artificial intelligence into industrial and commercial processes across all sectors.

In a 2025 interview with TIME, Li discussed China's AI ambitions in the context of global competition, stating that China was "not that far behind" in the development of artificial intelligence capabilities. Li emphasized the concept of "internalizing AI" as a native capability within organizations, arguing that this approach would transform intelligence from a cost center into a driver of productivity.

Under Li's direction, Baidu deepened its investment in large language models and AI-native applications, with Li publicly committing the company to further investment in AI research and deployment. This strategic direction positioned Baidu as a central player in China's national AI development strategy, aligning corporate objectives with Beijing's "AI Plus" campaign to integrate artificial intelligence across the economy.

Board and Advisory Roles

Beyond his role at Baidu, Li has served on the board of New Oriental, a major Chinese education company. He has also been involved in advisory capacities related to data and technology policy; Li served on the United Nations Secretary-General's Independent Expert Advisory Group on a Data Revolution for Sustainable Development (IEAG).

Personal Life

Robin Li is married to Ma Dongmin (马东敏), who holds a doctorate in biological sciences. Ma Dongmin has been credited with encouraging Li to return to China to start a company, and she has been involved in Baidu's development. The couple has four children.

Li maintains a relatively low public profile compared to some of his peers in the global technology industry. He is known primarily through his public appearances at Baidu corporate events and technology conferences, as well as through occasional interviews with international media outlets.

Li served as a member of the 12th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), China's top political advisory body, from 2013 to 2018. This appointment reflected his standing as one of China's most prominent business figures and provided him a formal role in the country's political advisory processes.

Recognition

Robin Li's contributions to internet technology and his role in building Baidu have been recognized through various honors and listings. He has appeared repeatedly on Forbes lists of the world's wealthiest individuals as a billionaire, with his wealth tied primarily to his stake in Baidu.

Li's creation of the RankDex technology and its associated U.S. patent have been recognized in the history of search engine development as an early implementation of hyperlink-based ranking algorithms. The technology is considered part of the intellectual foundation of modern web search.

His appointment to the United Nations Secretary-General's Independent Expert Advisory Group on a Data Revolution for Sustainable Development recognized his expertise in data-driven technology and its societal implications.

Li has been profiled by major international media outlets, including TIME, the Financial Times, Forbes, and the South China Morning Post, and has spoken at various technology forums and conferences, including Stanford University's Entrepreneurship Corner.

Legacy

Robin Li's legacy is most closely associated with the creation and growth of Baidu, which became the dominant search engine in the world's largest internet market. By building a search engine optimized for the Chinese language and Chinese internet users, Li and Baidu filled a critical gap in the Chinese internet ecosystem during a period of rapid digital growth. Baidu's success demonstrated that Chinese technology companies could compete with and, in their home market, surpass global technology giants such as Google.

Li's early work on RankDex and hyperlink-based page ranking represents a significant contribution to the technical development of web search. The patent he received for this technology is part of the historical record of how modern search engines evolved from simple keyword-matching tools into sophisticated systems that analyze the structure of the web itself to determine the relevance and authority of pages.

His strategic pivot of Baidu toward artificial intelligence, beginning in the mid-2010s, positioned the company at the center of China's national AI development efforts. As of the mid-2020s, Li has become one of the most vocal proponents of integrating AI across the Chinese economy, framing the technology as essential to China's next phase of economic growth.

Li's career trajectory — from a small city in Shanxi province to graduate studies in the United States to building one of China's largest technology companies — also reflects broader patterns in the development of the Chinese technology industry, including the role of overseas-educated Chinese entrepreneurs in driving domestic innovation and the complex interplay between China's technology sector and its regulatory environment.

However, Li's legacy is also shaped by the controversies that occurred during his leadership of Baidu, including the Wei Zexi incident and concerns about advertising practices. These events remain part of the public record and have influenced ongoing debates about corporate responsibility, advertising ethics, and the role of platform companies in curating information for users in China and globally.