(Reuters) -Baidu Inc surpassed quarterly income estimates on Thursday as a resurgence of COVID-19 in China and accompanying restrictions drove up demand for its cloud and synthetic intelligence merchandise.

The corporate – Google (NASDAQ:)’s equal in China – has expanded aggressively into cloud companies, robotaxis and autonomous driving in recent times as competitors rises for its core search platform and commercial enterprise.

It final month obtained permits to deploy robotaxis with out people within the driving seat on open Chinese language roads for the primary time.

Whole income got here in at 28.41 billion yuan ($4.22 billion) within the first quarter, in contrast with analysts’ common estimate of 27.82 billion yuan, in response to IBES information from Refinitiv.

Internet loss attributable to Baidu (NASDAQ:) fell to 885 million yuan, or 2.87 yuan per American Depository Share (ADS), within the quarter ended March 31, in contrast with a revenue of 25.65 billion yuan, or 73.76 yuan per ADS, a yr earlier.

($1 = 6.7382 renminbi)