Baidu adds second AI research facility in Silicon Valley
China's Baidu is to double its presence in Silicon Valley by creating a second artificial intelligence (AI) research and development facility. It will add capacity for 150 employees at a new site in addition to the 200 staff already located in Sunnyvale, California. Baidu is hoping investment in AI will help it catch up with Chinese rivals Tencent and Alibaba. As part of this, it has been reported that Baidu is willing to pay talented AI scientists 15% higher salaries if they move to China. Last week Baidu's leading AI researcher Andrew Ng, the head of the Sunnyvale office, announced he was leaving the company.

Baidu wants to bring AI talent to China, badly. So much so that it's willing to pay its scientists 15 percent more in compensation if they'll move from the U.S. to China, according to a Wall Street Journal report, citing a Baidu executive.

AI-related research is still a developing field in China, which means most of the talent there is coming from outside of the country, with many having attended Stanford and other prestigious U.S. universities. That talent gap has made it increasingly difficult for the country to keep up with the likes of Facebook and Google when it comes to AI innovation, according to the WSJ report.

Baidu's, main competitors are still other Chinese companies, also trying to recruit global talent with AI expertise, including Alibaba and Tencent both companies are aggressively hiring from the US.

When Baidu's chief scientist Andrew Ng announced he was stepping down earlier this week, his departure was a blow to the company, which has long struggled with recruiting top talent in artificial intelligence. It was also a blow to China's ambition to be a leader in the AI space.

Read the entire report at the WSJ.

