Breakfast News: Baidu Booms on LLM Goals

Breakfast News: Baidu Booms on LLM Goals

September 17, 2025

1. AI Deal Sends Baidu Higher

Baidu (BIDU 0.77%) jumped 9% in overnight trading on top of a 7.8% gain yesterday, after the Chinese tech giant sealed a new partnership with state-owned China Merchants Group in its accelerating AI drive.

• "Both sides plan to focus on applications of large language models, AI agents and 'digital employees'": Baidu, the leader in China's search engine market, spoke of plans for "scalable and sustainable progress in industrial intelligence."
• Advances in factuality and agentic capabilities: Baidu had earlier announced Ernie X1.1, its latest AI reasoning model, claiming its performance beats DeepSeek and matches OpenAI's GPT-5 and Alphabet's (GOOG +0.00%) Gemini 2.5 Pro.

2. Fed Set to Cut Rates

Investors' eyes are on the Federal Reserve meeting concluding today, expected to produce the first interest rate reduction of the year. The money is on a 25 basis-point cut, though most expect new Fed appointee Stephen Miran to back something bigger. The CME FedWatch tool has the chance of a 50-point cut at just 4%.

• "The goals of the Fed's dual mandate are in 'tension' and are likely to become more so going forward": John Velis at BNY (BK +0.01%) points to the conflicting goals facing the Fed, after chair Jerome Powell hinted at Jackson Hole that tackling unemployment could be growing in priority.
• "The key question ... is whether the committee will signal that this is likely the first in a series of consecutive cuts": David Mericle at Goldman Sachs (GS 0.10%) expects the Fed's dot plot – its quarterly chart showing each member's prediction – will signal two cuts in 2025 rather than three.

3. U.K. Tech Deals Reach $42 Billion

The U.S. and U.K. have agreed on a technology partnership to boost cooperation in AI, quantum computing, and nuclear energy, as President Trump arrived on his second state visit. Microsoft (MSFT 1.45%) – pledging $30 billion – joins Nvidia (NVDA 0.04%), Alphabet, OpenAI, and Rule Breakers recommendation Salesforce (CRM +1.47%) in the new $42 billion "Tech Prosperity Deal."

• "Truly make the UK an AI maker, not an AI taker": Nvidia's David Hogan enthused as the company plans to use up to 60,000 Grace Blackwell Ultra chips to help build the country's biggest AI supercomputer in partnership with Britain's Nscale.
• "Next-generation biopharma factories and laboratories in the United States": As part of growing trade deals, Britain's GSK (GSK 0.17%) will invest at least $30 billion in R&D in the U.S., including plans to advance AI-based manufacturing.

4. TikTok Sale Set to Go Ahead

Further details are emerging on the sale of TikTok's U.S. operations to a consortium led by Oracle (ORCL +2.23%), ahead of a discussion between President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping set for this week.

• ByteDance stake to fall below 20%: According to Bloomberg, venture capital firms Andreessen Horowitz and Silver Lake will join Oracle as part owners, with a new U.S.-based app under development.
• "Mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation": China's People's Daily praised the plans, adding China will review TikTok's technology and intellectual property.

5. StubHub Joins IPO Surge

Online ticket reseller StubHub has set the pricing of its IPO at $23.50 per share, with trading expected to commence today under the ticker "STUB" – raising $800 million and valuing the company at $8.6 billion.

• Success at third try: StubHub had seen two previous attempts to go public shelved, the most recent derailed by President Trump's "Liberation Day" tariffs shock.
• IPO market surging: Recent public offerings, including Klarna (KLAR +2.62%) last week and Bullish (BLSH +1.24%) last month, got off to winning starts.

6. Your Take

Are any upcoming or mooted IPOs attracting your interest? If so, why? If not, why not? Discuss with friends and family, or become a member to hear what your fellow Fools are saying.