Robin Li: Difference between revisions

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| occupation = Software engineer, internet entrepreneur
| occupation = Software engineer, internet entrepreneur
| title = Co-founder and CEO of Baidu; Chairman of iQIYI
| title = Co-founder and CEO of Baidu; Chairman of iQIYI
| known_for = Co-founding Baidu; creating the RankDex search engine
| known_for = Co-founding Baidu; developing the RankDex search engine algorithm
| spouse = Ma Dongmin (马东敏)
| spouse = Ma Dongmin (马东敏)
| children = 4
| children = 4
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}}
}}


'''Robin Li''' ({{zh|s=李彦宏|t=李彥宏|p=Lǐ Yànhóng}}; born 17 November 1968) is a Chinese software engineer and internet entrepreneur who co-founded [[Baidu|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.<ref>{{cite web |title=RankDex - About |url=http://www.rankdex.com/about.html |publisher=RankDex |access-date=2026-02-24}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite news |date=2005-08-07 |title=Baidu.com IPO |url=http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2005/08/07/2003266803 |work=Taipei Times |access-date=2026-02-24}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite web |title=2013 Two Sessions Report |url=http://news.china.com.cn/2013lianghui/2013-03/05/content_28139169.htm |publisher=China.com.cn |date=2013-03-05 |access-date=2026-02-24}}</ref>
'''Robin Li''' ({{lang|zh|李彦宏}}, [[pinyin]]: ''Lǐ Yànhóng''; born 17 November 1968) is a Chinese software engineer, internet entrepreneur, and billionaire businessman who co-founded and serves as the chief executive officer of [[Baidu|Baidu Inc.]], a Chinese multinational technology company that operates one of the world's largest internet search engines. Born in the coal-mining city of Yangquan in Shanxi province, Li rose from modest beginnings to become one of China's most prominent technology leaders. He studied information management at Peking University before moving to the United States, where he earned a master's degree in computer science from the University at Buffalo. During his time in the United States, Li developed the RankDex algorithm, a pioneering search engine ranking mechanism that used hyperlink analysis to rank web pages — a concept that predated and paralleled the development of similar approaches by other search engines.<ref name="rankdex">{{cite web |title=About RankDex |url=http://www.rankdex.com/about.html |publisher=RankDex |access-date=2026-02-24}}</ref> In 2000, Li returned to China and co-founded Baidu with Eric Xu, building it into the dominant search engine in the Chinese-language internet. Baidu went public on the NASDAQ stock exchange in August 2005 in one of the most notable initial public offerings of that year.<ref name="nasdaqipo">{{cite news |date=2005-08-07 |title=Baidu.com shares soar on first day of Nasdaq trading |url=http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2005/08/07/2003266803 |work=Taipei Times |access-date=2026-02-24}}</ref> In more recent years, Li has steered Baidu toward artificial intelligence, positioning the company as a leader in AI development within China.<ref name="time2025">{{cite news |date=2025 |title='We're Not That Far Behind.' Baidu's Robin Li on China's Push to Diffuse AI Throughout Society |url=https://time.com/7357630/robin-li-baidu-interview/ |work=TIME |access-date=2026-02-24}}</ref>


== Early Life ==
== 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.<ref>{{cite web |title=Li Yanhong Biography |url=http://wiki.mbalib.com/wiki/%E6%9D%8E%E5%BD%A6%E5%AE%8F |publisher=MBAlib |access-date=2026-02-24}}</ref> 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.
Robin Li was born on 17 November 1968 in Yangquan, a city in Shanxi province in northern China. His father, Li Guifu (李贵富), raised the family in a region historically associated with coal mining and heavy industry.<ref name="mbalib">{{cite web |title=李彦宏 |url=http://wiki.mbalib.com/wiki/%E6%9D%8E%E5%BD%A6%E5%AE%8F |publisher=MBAlib |access-date=2026-02-24}}</ref> Li grew up as one of five children in his family. Growing up in the relatively small and industrially oriented city, Li distinguished himself academically from an early age. He reportedly developed an interest in computers and information technology during his formative years, a pursuit that would define his career trajectory.


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.<ref name="mbalib">{{cite web |title=Li Yanhong Biography |url=http://wiki.mbalib.com/wiki/%E6%9D%8E%E5%BD%A6%E5%AE%8F |publisher=MBAlib |access-date=2026-02-24}}</ref>
Li's upbringing in Yangquan, far from the major cosmopolitan centers of Beijing or Shanghai, shaped his perspective as an outsider who would later navigate both the Chinese and American technology landscapes. His early academic aptitude earned him admission to one of China's most elite universities, setting the stage for his subsequent move to the United States and eventual return to China to build one of the country's most significant technology companies.
 
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 ==
== Education ==


Li enrolled at Peking University in Beijing, where he studied information management and earned a Bachelor of Management degree.<ref name="mbalib" /> 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.
Li enrolled at [[Peking University]], one of China's most prestigious institutions of higher learning, where he studied information management and earned a bachelor's degree in management.<ref name="mbalib" /> His time at Peking University provided him with a foundational understanding of information systems and library science, disciplines that would later inform his approach to internet search 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.<ref>{{cite web |title=Baidu Corporate Governance - Robin Li Bio |url=http://ir.baidu.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=188488&p=irol-govBio&ID=138201 |publisher=Baidu Inc. Investor Relations |access-date=2026-02-24}}</ref> 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.
After completing his undergraduate studies, Li traveled to the United States to pursue graduate education. He enrolled at the [[University at Buffalo]], part of the State University of New York system, where he earned a master's degree in computer science.<ref name="baidu_bio">{{cite web |title=Robin Li - Board of Directors |url=http://ir.baidu.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=188488&p=irol-govBio&ID=138201 |publisher=Baidu Inc. Investor Relations |access-date=2026-02-24}}</ref> His graduate studies in computer science gave Li the technical foundation to work on search engine technology and information retrieval algorithms, which became the cornerstone of his professional career. It was during and after his time in American academia that Li began developing the ideas that would eventually lead to the creation of the RankDex algorithm and, ultimately, Baidu.
 
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 ==
== Career ==
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=== Early Career in the United States ===
=== 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.
After completing his master's degree, Li remained in the United States and worked in the American technology sector. During this period, he gained experience in the field of search engine development and information retrieval. In 1996, while working in the United States, Li created RankDex, a search engine and site-scoring algorithm that used hyperlink analysis to rank web pages.<ref name="rankdex" /> The RankDex algorithm represented an early implementation of the concept that the structure of links between web pages could be used as a measure of a page's importance and relevance — an idea that would become fundamental to modern search engine technology.


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.<ref>{{cite web |title=RankDex - About |url=http://www.rankdex.com/about.html |publisher=RankDex |access-date=2026-02-24}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite web |title=US Patent 6285999 - Method for node ranking in a linked database |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151015185034/http://www.google.com/patents/US6285999 |publisher=Google Patents (archived) |access-date=2026-02-24}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite news |last=Altucher |first=James |date=2011-03-18 |title=10 Unusual Things About Google |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesaltucher/2011/03/18/10-unusual-things-about-google-also-the-worst-vc-decision-i-ever-made/ |work=Forbes |access-date=2026-02-24}}</ref>
Li's work on RankDex led to the filing of a patent in the United States. The patent, U.S. Patent 6,285,999 titled "Hypertext document retrieval system and method," described a method for ranking documents based on the analysis of hyperlinks.<ref name="patent">{{cite web |title=US Patent 6,285,999 - Hypertext document retrieval system and method |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151015185034/http://www.google.com/patents/US6285999 |publisher=Google Patents (archived) |access-date=2026-02-24}}</ref> This patent documented Li's contribution to the development of link analysis-based ranking, a technique that was contemporaneous with and conceptually related to the PageRank algorithm developed by Larry Page and Sergey Brin at Stanford University. According to some analyses, Li's RankDex work predated the public filing of the PageRank patent.<ref name="forbes_google">{{cite news |last=Altucher |first=James |date=2011-03-18 |title=10 Unusual Things About Google (Also, The Worst VC Decision I Ever Made) |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesaltucher/2011/03/18/10-unusual-things-about-google-also-the-worst-vc-decision-i-ever-made/ |work=Forbes |access-date=2026-02-24}}</ref> Li also published academic work related to his research; a paper connected to his work appeared in an IEEE publication.<ref name="ieee">{{cite web |title=IEEE publication |url=https://doi.org/10.1109%2F4236.707687 |publisher=IEEE |access-date=2026-02-24}}</ref>


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.<ref>{{cite web |title=IEEE Publication |url=https://doi.org/10.1109%2F4236.707687 |publisher=IEEE |access-date=2026-02-24}}</ref>
Li's time in the United States provided him with direct exposure to the rapidly evolving internet industry during the late 1990s. His technical expertise in search algorithms and his understanding of the commercial potential of internet search positioned him to identify a significant market opportunity in China, where the internet was growing rapidly but lacked a dominant domestically developed search engine.


=== Founding of Baidu ===
=== 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.<ref name="taipei2006">{{cite news |date=2006-09-17 |title=Baidu profile |url=http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/bizfocus/archives/2006/09/17/2003328060 |work=Taipei Times |access-date=2026-02-24}}</ref>
In 2000, Li returned to China and co-founded Baidu, Inc. together with Eric Xu. The company was established in Beijing with the goal of creating a Chinese-language internet search engine.<ref name="mbalib" /> The name "Baidu" (百度) is derived from a line in a classical Chinese poem by Xin Qiji, meaning "hundreds of times," evoking the persistent search for an ideal — an apt metaphor for an internet search company.


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.
At its founding, Baidu initially operated as a back-end search technology provider for other Chinese internet portals, supplying search results to major Chinese websites. The company subsequently transitioned to operating its own consumer-facing search engine, directly competing for users in the Chinese internet market. This strategic pivot proved to be a defining moment for the company, allowing Baidu to build a direct relationship with the rapidly growing population of Chinese internet users.


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 growth in the early 2000s was accelerated by several factors, including the expanding Chinese internet user base and the company's focus on Chinese-language search optimization. While international competitors such as Google also operated in the Chinese market, Baidu maintained a dominant position in Chinese-language search, a position it has held for most of its history.<ref name="baiduvgoogle">{{cite web |title=Baidu vs Google |url=https://fourweekmba.com/baidu-vs-google/ |publisher=FourWeekMBA |access-date=2026-02-24}}</ref>


=== Baidu's NASDAQ Listing and Growth ===
=== Baidu's IPO 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.<ref>{{cite news |date=2005-08-07 |title=Baidu.com IPO |url=http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2005/08/07/2003266803 |work=Taipei Times |access-date=2026-02-24}}</ref> 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.
On 5 August 2005, Baidu completed its initial public offering on the NASDAQ stock exchange. The IPO was one of the most successful technology listings of that year; Baidu's share price rose significantly on the first day of trading, generating substantial attention from international investors and media.<ref name="nasdaqipo" /> The IPO established Baidu as a major publicly traded technology company and brought considerable wealth to Li and other early stakeholders.


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.<ref>{{cite web |title=Baidu vs Google |url=https://fourweekmba.com/baidu-vs-google/ |publisher=FourWeekMBA |access-date=2026-02-24}}</ref>
In the period following its IPO, Baidu expanded its range of internet services beyond search. The company developed products including Baidu Baike (an online encyclopedia), Baidu Tieba (a keyword-based discussion forum), Baidu Maps, and various other web-based services. Baidu's business model relied heavily on online advertising revenue, particularly pay-per-click advertising linked to its search results, mirroring the revenue model employed by Google and other search companies globally.<ref name="taipei2006">{{cite news |date=2006-09-17 |title=Baidu profile |url=http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/bizfocus/archives/2006/09/17/2003328060 |work=Taipei Times |access-date=2026-02-24}}</ref>


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.<ref>{{cite news |date=2010-01-20 |title=Google and China |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTOE60H01S20100120 |work=Reuters |access-date=2026-02-24}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite news |date=2005-12-08 |title=Baidu and piracy concerns |url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2005/dec/08/piracy.news |work=The Guardian |access-date=2026-02-24}}</ref>
Li assumed the role of chief executive officer of Baidu in January 2004 and has retained that position since.<ref name="baidu_bio" /> Under his leadership, Baidu grew to become one of the largest internet companies in the world by revenue and market capitalization, and the most used search engine in China. The company faced competition from both domestic and international rivals, including Google, which operated in China until 2010 when it redirected its Chinese search service to Hong Kong following disputes over censorship and cyberattacks.<ref name="reuters_google">{{cite news |date=2010-01-20 |title=Google, China, and the future of the free Internet |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTOE60H01S20100120 |work=Reuters |access-date=2026-02-24}}</ref> Google's partial withdrawal from the mainland Chinese market further consolidated Baidu's dominant position in Chinese-language search.


=== Controversies ===
=== Controversies ===


Li's tenure as CEO of Baidu has been marked by several significant controversies that drew public criticism and regulatory scrutiny.
Li's tenure as CEO of Baidu has been marked by several significant controversies. Among the most prominent was the death of Wei Zexi in 2016. Wei, a 21-year-old college student suffering from a rare form of cancer, sought treatment at a hospital that was promoted through paid advertisements in Baidu's search results. The hospital provided an experimental and ineffective treatment, and Wei subsequently died. The incident drew widespread public outcry in China and intense scrutiny of Baidu's advertising practices, particularly the company's system of selling prominent placement in search results to medical providers without adequate verification of their qualifications or the treatments they offered.<ref name="mbalib" />
 
Baidu also faced criticism related to its Tieba platform, where it was reported that the moderation of health-related discussion forums had been handed over to commercial medical entities, raising concerns about conflicts of interest and the spread of misleading medical information. Additionally, the company faced allegations of advertising fraud, including concerns that its pay-per-click advertising system was susceptible to manipulation.<ref name="mbalib" />


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.
These controversies prompted regulatory attention from Chinese authorities and led to reforms in Baidu's advertising practices, including changes to how medical advertisements were displayed in search results. The incidents also affected public perception of the company and of Li personally, raising broader questions about the responsibilities of internet platforms in regulating commercial content.


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.
Earlier in Baidu's history, the company also faced criticism regarding intellectual property issues. In 2005, ''The Guardian'' reported on concerns related to music piracy facilitated through Baidu's MP3 search service, which allowed users to find and download copyrighted music files.<ref name="guardian_piracy">{{cite news |date=2005-12-08 |title=Piracy concerns |url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2005/dec/08/piracy.news |work=The Guardian |access-date=2026-02-24}}</ref>


=== Pivot to Artificial Intelligence ===
=== 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.
In the mid-2010s, Li began steering Baidu's strategic direction toward artificial intelligence, identifying AI as the next major technological transformation and a critical area for the company's future growth. Under Li's leadership, Baidu invested heavily in AI research and development, establishing itself as one of the leading AI companies in China.
 
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.<ref>{{cite news |date=2025-11-20 |title=Baidu founder Robin Li: AI the driver of China's 'new productive forces' |url=https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/3333507/baidu-founder-robin-li-casts-ai-driver-chinas-new-productive-forces |work=South China Morning Post |access-date=2026-02-24}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |date=2025-11-20 |title=Baidu founder Robin Li casts AI as the driver of China's 'new productive forces' |url=https://finance.yahoo.com/news/baidu-founder-robin-li-casts-093000131.html |work=Yahoo Finance |access-date=2026-02-24}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite news |date=2025-11-20 |title=Baidu founder Robin Li wants AI to permeate 'every cell' of Chinese economy |url=https://cybernews.com/ai-news/baidu-ceo-robin-li-ai-economy/ |work=Cybernews |access-date=2026-02-24}}</ref>


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.<ref>{{cite news |date=2025 |title='We're Not That Far Behind.' Baidu's Robin Li on China's Push to Diffuse AI Throughout Society |url=https://time.com/7357630/robin-li-baidu-interview/ |work=TIME |access-date=2026-02-24}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite news |date=2025-11-13 |title=Baidu's Robin Li: Internalizing AI to Turn Intelligence Into Productivity |url=https://pandaily.com/baidu-s-robin-li-internalizing-ai-to-turn-intelligence-into-productivity |work=Pandaily |access-date=2026-02-24}}</ref>
Baidu's AI initiatives have spanned multiple domains, including natural language processing, autonomous driving (through its Apollo platform), cloud computing, and large language models. In November 2025, Li articulated his vision for AI at the Baidu World conference, stating that AI would become the core driver of China's "new productive forces" — a concept aligned with the Chinese government's broader economic strategy.<ref name="scmp2025">{{cite news |date=2025-11-20 |title=Baidu founder Robin Li: AI the driver of China's 'new productive forces' |url=https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/3333507/baidu-founder-robin-li-casts-ai-driver-chinas-new-productive-forces |work=South China Morning Post |access-date=2026-02-24}}</ref>


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.<ref>{{cite news |date=2025-11-25 |title=Baidu stakes its future on AI-native China, says CEO Robin Li |url=https://www.digitimes.com/news/a20251125PD238/baidu-ceo-ai-llm-development-growth.html |work=DigiTimes |access-date=2026-02-24}}</ref> 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.
In an interview with TIME magazine in 2025, Li discussed Baidu's position in the global AI race, suggesting that China was "not that far behind" the United States in AI development and emphasizing Baidu's efforts to diffuse AI technology throughout Chinese society and the economy.<ref name="time2025" /> Li has advocated for a vision of AI that is deeply integrated into business operations and everyday life. At the November 2025 Baidu World conference, he stated that internalizing AI as a native capability would transform artificial intelligence from a cost center into a driver of productivity.<ref name="pandaily2025">{{cite news |date=2025-11-13 |title=Baidu's Robin Li: Internalizing AI to Turn Intelligence Into Productivity |url=https://pandaily.com/baidu-s-robin-li-internalizing-ai-to-turn-intelligence-into-productivity |work=Pandaily |access-date=2026-02-24}}</ref>


=== Board and Advisory Roles ===
Li has spoken of wanting AI to permeate "every cell" of the Chinese economy, reflecting his ambition for Baidu to be at the center of China's AI-driven economic transformation.<ref name="cybernews2025">{{cite news |date=2025-11-20 |title=Baidu founder Robin Li wants AI to permeate "every cell" of Chinese economy |url=https://cybernews.com/ai-news/baidu-ceo-robin-li-ai-economy/ |work=Cybernews |access-date=2026-02-24}}</ref> Baidu has committed to deepening its investment in AI, with Li framing the company's future as that of an "AI-native" enterprise.<ref name="digitimes2025">{{cite news |date=2025-11-25 |title=Baidu stakes its future on AI-native China, says CEO Robin Li |url=https://www.digitimes.com/news/a20251125PD238/baidu-ceo-ai-llm-development-growth.html |work=Digitimes |access-date=2026-02-24}}</ref>


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).<ref>{{cite web |title=About IEAG |url=http://www.undatarevolution.org/about-ieag/ |publisher=UN Data Revolution |access-date=2026-02-24}}</ref>
Li also serves as the chairman of iQIYI, a major Chinese online entertainment service that was originally incubated within Baidu before being spun off as a separate publicly traded entity. He has additionally served on the board of New Oriental, a prominent Chinese education company.<ref name="baidu_bio" />


== Personal Life ==
== 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.<ref name="mbalib" />
Robin Li is married to Ma Dongmin (马东敏), who holds a doctorate in biology. Ma Dongmin has been credited in various Chinese media accounts with encouraging Li to return to China from the United States and supporting the founding of Baidu.<ref name="mbalib" /> 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.<ref>{{cite web |title=2013 Two Sessions Report |url=http://news.china.com.cn/2013lianghui/2013-03/05/content_28139169.htm |publisher=China.com.cn |date=2013-03-05 |access-date=2026-02-24}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite web |title=Robin Li Net Worth |url=https://www.celebritynetworth.com/richest-businessmen/richest-billionaires/robin-li-net-worth/ |publisher=Celebrity Net Worth |date=2025-12-09 |access-date=2026-02-24}}</ref>
Li maintains a relatively low public profile compared to some of his peers in the Chinese technology industry. His public statements and appearances are generally focused on Baidu's business strategy and the development of technology in China rather than personal matters.


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.<ref>{{cite web |title=US Patent 6285999 - Method for node ranking in a linked database |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151015185034/http://www.google.com/patents/US6285999 |publisher=Google Patents (archived) |access-date=2026-02-24}}</ref> The technology is considered part of the intellectual foundation of modern web search.
== Political and Advisory Roles ==


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.<ref>{{cite web |title=About IEAG |url=http://www.undatarevolution.org/about-ieag/ |publisher=UN Data Revolution |access-date=2026-02-24}}</ref>
Li served as a member of the 12th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) from 2013 to 2018, an advisory body within the Chinese political system.<ref name="cppcc">{{cite web |title=CPPCC Member Profile |url=http://news.china.com.cn/2013lianghui/2013-03/05/content_28139169.htm |publisher=China.com.cn |date=2013-03-05 |access-date=2026-02-24}}</ref> Membership in the CPPCC is considered a position of political prestige in China and reflects the intersection of business and government relations in the Chinese context.


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.<ref>{{cite web |title=Robin Li at Stanford eCorner |url=http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=2280 |publisher=Stanford University |access-date=2026-02-24}}</ref>
Li was also named to the United Nations Secretary-General's Independent Expert Advisory Group on the Data Revolution for Sustainable Development, reflecting international recognition of his expertise in data and internet technology.<ref name="undatarev">{{cite web |title=About IEAG |url=http://www.undatarevolution.org/about-ieag/ |publisher=United Nations Data Revolution |access-date=2026-02-24}}</ref>


== Legacy ==
== 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.
Robin Li's contributions to internet technology and the Chinese technology industry are defined by two principal achievements: the development of the RankDex hyperlink analysis algorithm and the co-founding and leadership of Baidu. The RankDex algorithm, developed in 1996, represented one of the earliest implementations of link analysis for search engine ranking, a technique that became foundational to modern web search.<ref name="rankdex" /><ref name="patent" /> While the PageRank algorithm developed at Stanford University received greater public attention due to its association with Google, Li's prior work on similar concepts has been noted by commentators as a significant contribution to the development of search technology.<ref name="forbes_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.
As co-founder and long-tenured CEO of Baidu, Li built what became the dominant search engine in China, serving hundreds of millions of users. Baidu's growth paralleled and contributed to the broader expansion of the Chinese internet economy. The company's evolution from a search engine into a diversified technology conglomerate with significant investments in artificial intelligence, autonomous driving, and cloud computing reflects Li's strategic decisions over more than two decades of leadership.


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.<ref>{{cite news |date=2025-11-20 |title=Baidu founder Robin Li: AI the driver of China's 'new productive forces' |url=https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/3333507/baidu-founder-robin-li-casts-ai-driver-chinas-new-productive-forces |work=South China Morning Post |access-date=2026-02-24}}</ref>
Li's career also illustrates the broader phenomenon of Chinese technologists who studied and worked in the United States before returning to China to build major technology companies — a pattern sometimes referred to as the "sea turtle" (海归) movement in Chinese discourse.<ref name="ft2025">{{cite news |date=2025 |title=The exorbitant privilege of the US brain gain is fading |url=https://www.ft.com/content/9b4f51ae-6d22-43d7-9d8c-6497b3995d08 |work=Financial Times |access-date=2026-02-24}}</ref> His trajectory from Yangquan to Peking University, the University at Buffalo, the American technology sector, and back to China to found one of the country's largest technology companies exemplifies this cross-border flow of talent and knowledge that has shaped the global technology landscape.


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.
Li's more recent focus on artificial intelligence positions him and Baidu at the center of China's national strategy for AI-driven economic development, a strategic priority that the Chinese government has termed "new productive forces."<ref name="scmp2025" /> Whether Baidu can maintain its competitive position in the rapidly evolving AI landscape — both domestically against rivals such as Alibaba, Tencent, and emerging competitors, and internationally — remains an open question that will define the next chapter of Li's career.
 
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.


== References ==
== References ==
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Latest revision as of 05:47, 24 February 2026


Robin Li
Born17 11, 1968
BirthplaceYangquan, Shanxi, China
NationalityChinese
OccupationSoftware engineer, internet entrepreneur
TitleCo-founder and CEO of Baidu; Chairman of iQIYI
Known forCo-founding Baidu; developing the RankDex search engine algorithm
EducationUniversity at Buffalo (MS)
Spouse(s)Ma Dongmin (马东敏)
Children4

Robin Li (Template:Lang, pinyin: Lǐ Yànhóng; born 17 November 1968) is a Chinese software engineer, internet entrepreneur, and billionaire businessman who co-founded and serves as the chief executive officer of Baidu Inc., a Chinese multinational technology company that operates one of the world's largest internet search engines. Born in the coal-mining city of Yangquan in Shanxi province, Li rose from modest beginnings to become one of China's most prominent technology leaders. He studied information management at Peking University before moving to the United States, where he earned a master's degree in computer science from the University at Buffalo. During his time in the United States, Li developed the RankDex algorithm, a pioneering search engine ranking mechanism that used hyperlink analysis to rank web pages — a concept that predated and paralleled the development of similar approaches by other search engines.[1] In 2000, Li returned to China and co-founded Baidu with Eric Xu, building it into the dominant search engine in the Chinese-language internet. Baidu went public on the NASDAQ stock exchange in August 2005 in one of the most notable initial public offerings of that year.[2] In more recent years, Li has steered Baidu toward artificial intelligence, positioning the company as a leader in AI development within China.[3]

Early Life

Robin Li was born on 17 November 1968 in Yangquan, a city in Shanxi province in northern China. His father, Li Guifu (李贵富), raised the family in a region historically associated with coal mining and heavy industry.[4] Li grew up as one of five children in his family. Growing up in the relatively small and industrially oriented city, Li distinguished himself academically from an early age. He reportedly developed an interest in computers and information technology during his formative years, a pursuit that would define his career trajectory.

Li's upbringing in Yangquan, far from the major cosmopolitan centers of Beijing or Shanghai, shaped his perspective as an outsider who would later navigate both the Chinese and American technology landscapes. His early academic aptitude earned him admission to one of China's most elite universities, setting the stage for his subsequent move to the United States and eventual return to China to build one of the country's most significant technology companies.

Education

Li enrolled at Peking University, one of China's most prestigious institutions of higher learning, where he studied information management and earned a bachelor's degree in management.[4] His time at Peking University provided him with a foundational understanding of information systems and library science, disciplines that would later inform his approach to internet search technology.

After completing his undergraduate studies, Li traveled to the United States to pursue graduate education. He enrolled at the University at Buffalo, part of the State University of New York system, where he earned a master's degree in computer science.[5] His graduate studies in computer science gave Li the technical foundation to work on search engine technology and information retrieval algorithms, which became the cornerstone of his professional career. It was during and after his time in American academia that Li began developing the ideas that would eventually lead to the creation of the RankDex algorithm and, ultimately, Baidu.

Career

Early Career in the United States

After completing his master's degree, Li remained in the United States and worked in the American technology sector. During this period, he gained experience in the field of search engine development and information retrieval. In 1996, while working in the United States, Li created RankDex, a search engine and site-scoring algorithm that used hyperlink analysis to rank web pages.[1] The RankDex algorithm represented an early implementation of the concept that the structure of links between web pages could be used as a measure of a page's importance and relevance — an idea that would become fundamental to modern search engine technology.

Li's work on RankDex led to the filing of a patent in the United States. The patent, U.S. Patent 6,285,999 titled "Hypertext document retrieval system and method," described a method for ranking documents based on the analysis of hyperlinks.[6] This patent documented Li's contribution to the development of link analysis-based ranking, a technique that was contemporaneous with and conceptually related to the PageRank algorithm developed by Larry Page and Sergey Brin at Stanford University. According to some analyses, Li's RankDex work predated the public filing of the PageRank patent.[7] Li also published academic work related to his research; a paper connected to his work appeared in an IEEE publication.[8]

Li's time in the United States provided him with direct exposure to the rapidly evolving internet industry during the late 1990s. His technical expertise in search algorithms and his understanding of the commercial potential of internet search positioned him to identify a significant market opportunity in China, where the internet was growing rapidly but lacked a dominant domestically developed search engine.

Founding of Baidu

In 2000, Li returned to China and co-founded Baidu, Inc. together with Eric Xu. The company was established in Beijing with the goal of creating a Chinese-language internet search engine.[4] The name "Baidu" (百度) is derived from a line in a classical Chinese poem by Xin Qiji, meaning "hundreds of times," evoking the persistent search for an ideal — an apt metaphor for an internet search company.

At its founding, Baidu initially operated as a back-end search technology provider for other Chinese internet portals, supplying search results to major Chinese websites. The company subsequently transitioned to operating its own consumer-facing search engine, directly competing for users in the Chinese internet market. This strategic pivot proved to be a defining moment for the company, allowing Baidu to build a direct relationship with the rapidly growing population of Chinese internet users.

Baidu's growth in the early 2000s was accelerated by several factors, including the expanding Chinese internet user base and the company's focus on Chinese-language search optimization. While international competitors such as Google also operated in the Chinese market, Baidu maintained a dominant position in Chinese-language search, a position it has held for most of its history.[9]

Baidu's IPO and Growth

On 5 August 2005, Baidu completed its initial public offering on the NASDAQ stock exchange. The IPO was one of the most successful technology listings of that year; Baidu's share price rose significantly on the first day of trading, generating substantial attention from international investors and media.[2] The IPO established Baidu as a major publicly traded technology company and brought considerable wealth to Li and other early stakeholders.

In the period following its IPO, Baidu expanded its range of internet services beyond search. The company developed products including Baidu Baike (an online encyclopedia), Baidu Tieba (a keyword-based discussion forum), Baidu Maps, and various other web-based services. Baidu's business model relied heavily on online advertising revenue, particularly pay-per-click advertising linked to its search results, mirroring the revenue model employed by Google and other search companies globally.[10]

Li assumed the role of chief executive officer of Baidu in January 2004 and has retained that position since.[5] Under his leadership, Baidu grew to become one of the largest internet companies in the world by revenue and market capitalization, and the most used search engine in China. The company faced competition from both domestic and international rivals, including Google, which operated in China until 2010 when it redirected its Chinese search service to Hong Kong following disputes over censorship and cyberattacks.[11] Google's partial withdrawal from the mainland Chinese market further consolidated Baidu's dominant position in Chinese-language search.

Controversies

Li's tenure as CEO of Baidu has been marked by several significant controversies. Among the most prominent was the death of Wei Zexi in 2016. Wei, a 21-year-old college student suffering from a rare form of cancer, sought treatment at a hospital that was promoted through paid advertisements in Baidu's search results. The hospital provided an experimental and ineffective treatment, and Wei subsequently died. The incident drew widespread public outcry in China and intense scrutiny of Baidu's advertising practices, particularly the company's system of selling prominent placement in search results to medical providers without adequate verification of their qualifications or the treatments they offered.[4]

Baidu also faced criticism related to its Tieba platform, where it was reported that the moderation of health-related discussion forums had been handed over to commercial medical entities, raising concerns about conflicts of interest and the spread of misleading medical information. Additionally, the company faced allegations of advertising fraud, including concerns that its pay-per-click advertising system was susceptible to manipulation.[4]

These controversies prompted regulatory attention from Chinese authorities and led to reforms in Baidu's advertising practices, including changes to how medical advertisements were displayed in search results. The incidents also affected public perception of the company and of Li personally, raising broader questions about the responsibilities of internet platforms in regulating commercial content.

Earlier in Baidu's history, the company also faced criticism regarding intellectual property issues. In 2005, The Guardian reported on concerns related to music piracy facilitated through Baidu's MP3 search service, which allowed users to find and download copyrighted music files.[12]

Pivot to Artificial Intelligence

In the mid-2010s, Li began steering Baidu's strategic direction toward artificial intelligence, identifying AI as the next major technological transformation and a critical area for the company's future growth. Under Li's leadership, Baidu invested heavily in AI research and development, establishing itself as one of the leading AI companies in China.

Baidu's AI initiatives have spanned multiple domains, including natural language processing, autonomous driving (through its Apollo platform), cloud computing, and large language models. In November 2025, Li articulated his vision for AI at the Baidu World conference, stating that AI would become the core driver of China's "new productive forces" — a concept aligned with the Chinese government's broader economic strategy.[13]

In an interview with TIME magazine in 2025, Li discussed Baidu's position in the global AI race, suggesting that China was "not that far behind" the United States in AI development and emphasizing Baidu's efforts to diffuse AI technology throughout Chinese society and the economy.[3] Li has advocated for a vision of AI that is deeply integrated into business operations and everyday life. At the November 2025 Baidu World conference, he stated that internalizing AI as a native capability would transform artificial intelligence from a cost center into a driver of productivity.[14]

Li has spoken of wanting AI to permeate "every cell" of the Chinese economy, reflecting his ambition for Baidu to be at the center of China's AI-driven economic transformation.[15] Baidu has committed to deepening its investment in AI, with Li framing the company's future as that of an "AI-native" enterprise.[16]

Li also serves as the chairman of iQIYI, a major Chinese online entertainment service that was originally incubated within Baidu before being spun off as a separate publicly traded entity. He has additionally served on the board of New Oriental, a prominent Chinese education company.[5]

Personal Life

Robin Li is married to Ma Dongmin (马东敏), who holds a doctorate in biology. Ma Dongmin has been credited in various Chinese media accounts with encouraging Li to return to China from the United States and supporting the founding of Baidu.[4] The couple has four children.

Li maintains a relatively low public profile compared to some of his peers in the Chinese technology industry. His public statements and appearances are generally focused on Baidu's business strategy and the development of technology in China rather than personal matters.

Political and Advisory Roles

Li served as a member of the 12th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) from 2013 to 2018, an advisory body within the Chinese political system.[17] Membership in the CPPCC is considered a position of political prestige in China and reflects the intersection of business and government relations in the Chinese context.

Li was also named to the United Nations Secretary-General's Independent Expert Advisory Group on the Data Revolution for Sustainable Development, reflecting international recognition of his expertise in data and internet technology.[18]

Legacy

Robin Li's contributions to internet technology and the Chinese technology industry are defined by two principal achievements: the development of the RankDex hyperlink analysis algorithm and the co-founding and leadership of Baidu. The RankDex algorithm, developed in 1996, represented one of the earliest implementations of link analysis for search engine ranking, a technique that became foundational to modern web search.[1][6] While the PageRank algorithm developed at Stanford University received greater public attention due to its association with Google, Li's prior work on similar concepts has been noted by commentators as a significant contribution to the development of search technology.[7]

As co-founder and long-tenured CEO of Baidu, Li built what became the dominant search engine in China, serving hundreds of millions of users. Baidu's growth paralleled and contributed to the broader expansion of the Chinese internet economy. The company's evolution from a search engine into a diversified technology conglomerate with significant investments in artificial intelligence, autonomous driving, and cloud computing reflects Li's strategic decisions over more than two decades of leadership.

Li's career also illustrates the broader phenomenon of Chinese technologists who studied and worked in the United States before returning to China to build major technology companies — a pattern sometimes referred to as the "sea turtle" (海归) movement in Chinese discourse.[19] His trajectory from Yangquan to Peking University, the University at Buffalo, the American technology sector, and back to China to found one of the country's largest technology companies exemplifies this cross-border flow of talent and knowledge that has shaped the global technology landscape.

Li's more recent focus on artificial intelligence positions him and Baidu at the center of China's national strategy for AI-driven economic development, a strategic priority that the Chinese government has termed "new productive forces."[13] Whether Baidu can maintain its competitive position in the rapidly evolving AI landscape — both domestically against rivals such as Alibaba, Tencent, and emerging competitors, and internationally — remains an open question that will define the next chapter of Li's career.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "About RankDex".RankDex.http://www.rankdex.com/about.html.Retrieved 2026-02-24.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Baidu.com shares soar on first day of Nasdaq trading".Taipei Times.2005-08-07.http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2005/08/07/2003266803.Retrieved 2026-02-24.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "'We're Not That Far Behind.' Baidu's Robin Li on China's Push to Diffuse AI Throughout Society".TIME.2025.https://time.com/7357630/robin-li-baidu-interview/.Retrieved 2026-02-24.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 "李彦宏".MBAlib.http://wiki.mbalib.com/wiki/%E6%9D%8E%E5%BD%A6%E5%AE%8F.Retrieved 2026-02-24.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 "Robin Li - Board of Directors".Baidu Inc. Investor Relations.http://ir.baidu.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=188488&p=irol-govBio&ID=138201.Retrieved 2026-02-24.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 "US Patent 6,285,999 - Hypertext document retrieval system and method".Google Patents (archived).https://web.archive.org/web/20151015185034/http://www.google.com/patents/US6285999.Retrieved 2026-02-24.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 AltucherJamesJames"10 Unusual Things About Google (Also, The Worst VC Decision I Ever Made)".Forbes.2011-03-18.https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesaltucher/2011/03/18/10-unusual-things-about-google-also-the-worst-vc-decision-i-ever-made/.Retrieved 2026-02-24.
  8. ↑ "IEEE publication".IEEE.https://doi.org/10.1109%2F4236.707687.Retrieved 2026-02-24.
  9. ↑ "Baidu vs Google".FourWeekMBA.https://fourweekmba.com/baidu-vs-google/.Retrieved 2026-02-24.
  10. ↑ "Baidu profile".Taipei Times.2006-09-17.http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/bizfocus/archives/2006/09/17/2003328060.Retrieved 2026-02-24.
  11. ↑ "Google, China, and the future of the free Internet".Reuters.2010-01-20.https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTOE60H01S20100120.Retrieved 2026-02-24.
  12. ↑ "Piracy concerns".The Guardian.2005-12-08.https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2005/dec/08/piracy.news.Retrieved 2026-02-24.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 "Baidu founder Robin Li: AI the driver of China's 'new productive forces'".South China Morning Post.2025-11-20.https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/3333507/baidu-founder-robin-li-casts-ai-driver-chinas-new-productive-forces.Retrieved 2026-02-24.
  14. ↑ "Baidu's Robin Li: Internalizing AI to Turn Intelligence Into Productivity".Pandaily.2025-11-13.https://pandaily.com/baidu-s-robin-li-internalizing-ai-to-turn-intelligence-into-productivity.Retrieved 2026-02-24.
  15. ↑ "Baidu founder Robin Li wants AI to permeate "every cell" of Chinese economy".Cybernews.2025-11-20.https://cybernews.com/ai-news/baidu-ceo-robin-li-ai-economy/.Retrieved 2026-02-24.
  16. ↑ "Baidu stakes its future on AI-native China, says CEO Robin Li".Digitimes.2025-11-25.https://www.digitimes.com/news/a20251125PD238/baidu-ceo-ai-llm-development-growth.html.Retrieved 2026-02-24.
  17. ↑ "CPPCC Member Profile".China.com.cn.2013-03-05.http://news.china.com.cn/2013lianghui/2013-03/05/content_28139169.htm.Retrieved 2026-02-24.
  18. ↑ "About IEAG".United Nations Data Revolution.http://www.undatarevolution.org/about-ieag/.Retrieved 2026-02-24.
  19. ↑ "The exorbitant privilege of the US brain gain is fading".Financial Times.2025.https://www.ft.com/content/9b4f51ae-6d22-43d7-9d8c-6497b3995d08.Retrieved 2026-02-24.

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