Baidu Shares Dip As Founder Of Chinese Search Engine Absent From Meeting with Xi

Baidu’s Hong Kong-listed shares plunged, wiping $2.4 billion off its market value after Robin Li, founder of the Chinese search engine giant, was absent from a high-profile meeting between President Xi Jinping and top corporate leaders, Anne Marie Roantree, Donny Kwok, and Liam Mo reported for Reuters.

Following the news of Li's absence in the meeting with Xi, Baidu’s shares dropped by as much as 8.8% before paring losses to close 7% lower. I Photo: Future Sciences Prize

Xi hosted a business symposium in Beijing with China’s leading tycoons, including Alibaba founder Jack Ma and Huawei’s Ren Zhengfei.

However, two sources told Reuters that Baidu’s founder, Robin Li, was not seen at the event. Investors closely monitor the presence of senior executives at such key meetings, and the absence of a major corporate leader often fuels speculation about a company’s standing with the government.

Following the news, Baidu’s shares dropped by as much as 8.8% before paring losses to close 7% lower. The company, now valued at HK$252.05 billion ($32.4 billion), was the biggest loser on both the Hang Seng Index and the Hang Seng Tech Index.

Brokers noted that Baidu’s stock had already shown weakness earlier in the day, after the company announced that it would fully integrate its search engine with Chinese AI startup DeepSeek and its proprietary Ernie large language model.

“That suggests the company is losing its competitive edge, after years of leading the market with the development of Ernie," said a sales director at a regional brokerage. "This may indicate that Baidu needs to catch up with newcomers like DeepSeek."

The director also speculated that the absence of Baidu executives from the business symposium could reinforce concerns that the company is losing its prominence in China’s tech landscape.