Baidu officially launched its highly anticipated Ernie 5.0 model, featuring 2.4 trillion parameters, during the Ernie Moment Conference on January 22, 2026.
- Citi maintained a Buy rating and set a $186 target price, citing Baidu's full-stack AI capabilities across chips, cloud, models, and agents via the Kunlunxin and Qianfan platforms.
- Ernie 5.0 supports native full-modal unified modeling for text, images, audio, and video.
- The stock closed at $162.52 (+0.15%) following the announcement, capping a strong 7-day return of +7.8%.