Baidu shares edge north; Bernstein says AI is ‘a new lease on life’

Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU) shares edged up by almost 2% Monday as Bernstein analyst Boris Van raised his rating on the Chinese Internet search giant to outperform due to the opportunities from AI technology. Van lifted his rating on Baidu from market perform, or neutral, and set a $160-a-share price target on the company’s stock, and said that AI has the potential to make up for what he called “a poorly constructed portfolio of initiatives.” Van said GPT is likely to “give Baidu’s strategy a new lease on life,” and the technology “can accelerate development of its business and give the company…