Baidu's stock surged 5.15% during the 24-hour trading session, reflecting significant investor optimism around the company's latest financial performance and growth prospects.

The movement follows reports that multiple investment banks have raised their target prices for Baidu. Nomura Securities increased its target from $186 to $190 while maintaining a Buy rating, and Haitong International raised its target from $188 to $201 with an Outperform rating. These upgrades were driven by Baidu's better-than-expected first-quarter earnings.

Key to the positive sentiment was Baidu's AI-driven revenue, which surged 49% year-over-year to 13.6 billion RMB, accounting for 52% of the company's core revenue for the first time. Within this segment, cloud infrastructure revenue grew 79% year-over-year, while GPU cloud revenue soared 184%, highlighting the rapid expansion of Baidu's AI business despite increased investment costs.