Baidu, Tencent embrace DeepSeek as China’s AI race heat up

Some of China's biggest companies, including Baidu and Tencent, the owner of the WeChat super-app, have announced DeepSeek integration while also developing their models.

Baidu, one of the first Chinese firms to launch a ChatGPT rival with Ernie Bot in 2023, is now embracing DeepSeek, a cheap and powerful model from a Hangzhou-based startup that has shaken up the AI industry.

Baidu said it would fully integrate both DeepSeek and its own Ernie capabilities into its search engine to offer a “more diversified search experience.” It promised “expert-level” responses and support for multi-scenario tasks.

The Chinese search giant also plans to add DeepSeek to its large language model (LLM) platform for developers.

Baidu’s announcement comes after its Shenzhen-based rival Tencent started testing an AI-powered search feature with the DeepSeek-R1 model on Weizin, as WeChat is known in China.

In parallel, Tencent is trialing its own AI reasoning model to make responses sound “more human,” while reportedly also considering DeepSeek integration across its other products.

Other major Chinese tech firms are moving forward with DeepSeek integration, including telecommunications giant Huawei, e-commerce leader Alibaba, and smartphone makers Oppo, Meizu, Honor, and most recently, Vivo.

While most work on in-house AI solutions, fierce competition is also driving many to apply cost-effective solutions provided by DeepSeek, which is becoming a “full-fledged ecosystem, similar to Android or iOS, but with a distinctly Chinese twist,” according to some experts.

This follows a similar pattern in the US, where major companies, including Microsoft and Apple, have integrated external OpenAI’s models into their systems.

National champion

DeepSeek transformed the global AI market after its launch last month, when it quickly overtook US rival ChatGPT in downloads on Apple’s App Store. However, it is also facing pushback outside China over security concerns and censorship.

New downloads have been suspended in South Korea and the app was banned from government devices in countries like Taiwan, as well as the state of New York, with similar proposals across the world.

With global scrutiny intensifying, the status of a national champion in China will be a boost to DeepSeek, especially as Beijing appears to be easing the stricter stance it has taken toward the private sector in recent years.

At the beginning of the week, Chinese President Xi Jinping held a rare meeting with some of the country's top tech leaders, including Alibaba founder Jack Ma, urging them to “show their talent” and have confidence in China’s economy.

This contrasts with the situation four years ago, when Alibaba was made a poster child of the government’s regulatory crackdown on the nation’s tech giants, with US President Donald Trump’s trade wars forcing it to change course.

The meeting was also attended by DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng, as well as representatives from Huawei, Xiaomi, and Unitree, a robotics startup.