{"schema_version":"onlylabs.public_analysis.v1","url":"https://onlylabs.fyi/analysis/baidu","json_url":"https://onlylabs.fyi/analysis/baidu/analysis.json","evidence_json_url":"https://onlylabs.fyi/analysis/baidu/evidence.json","generated_at":"2026-06-11T18:04:24.242Z","analysis":{"org_slug":"baidu","url":"https://onlylabs.fyi/analysis/baidu","json_url":"https://onlylabs.fyi/analysis/baidu/analysis.json","evidence_json_url":"https://onlylabs.fyi/analysis/baidu/evidence.json","dossier_url":"https://onlylabs.fyi/labs/baidu","org":{"slug":"baidu","name":"Baidu (ERNIE)","category":"frontier-lab","category_label":"Frontier lab","homepage_url":"https://ernie.baidu.com"},"title":"Baidu (ERNIE) analysis","summary":"Baidu's public footprint reads as two tightly-coupled engines: the open-weight ERNIE 4.5 model family (dense 0.3B through a 424B-A47B MoE, with vision-language and \"Thinking\" reasoning variants) shipped on Hugging Face, and the PaddlePaddle open-source stack that serves as its distribution and tooling moat — led by PaddleOCR, by far its largest community asset. Document AI / OCR is the clear commercial center of…","markdown":"## Thesis\n\nBaidu's public footprint reads as two tightly-coupled engines: the open-weight **ERNIE 4.5** model family (dense 0.3B through a 424B-A47B MoE, with vision-language and \"Thinking\" reasoning variants) shipped on Hugging Face, and the **PaddlePaddle** open-source stack that serves as its distribution and tooling moat — led by PaddleOCR, by far its largest community asset. Document AI / OCR is the clear commercial center of gravity: its single most-downloaded model is an OCR model, and its most-active release cadence is on PaddleOCR/PaddleX.\n\n## Shipping\n\n**Models (Hugging Face, 30-day downloads):**\n- [`baidu/Qianfan-OCR`](https://huggingface.co/baidu/Qianfan-OCR) — **204,259** downloads, 1,177 likes (~4.7B params), the most-downloaded model in the set; OCR is the demand center.\n- [`baidu/ERNIE-4.5-VL-28B-A3B-PT`](https://huggingface.co/baidu/ERNIE-4.5-VL-28B-A3B-PT) — **202,248** downloads; the most-pulled vision-language MoE (~29B params, 3B active).\n- [`baidu/ERNIE-4.5-21B-A3B-PT`](https://huggingface.co/baidu/ERNIE-4.5-21B-A3B-PT) — **66,235** downloads; the workhorse mid-size MoE.\n- [`baidu/ERNIE-Image`](https://huggingface.co/baidu/ERNIE-Image) — **35,776** downloads, 641 likes; image generation.\n- [`baidu/ERNIE-4.5-0.3B-PT`](https://huggingface.co/baidu/ERNIE-4.5-0.3B-PT) — **29,297** downloads; the small dense edge model.\n- Reasoning push: [`baidu/ERNIE-4.5-21B-A3B-Thinking`](https://huggingface.co/baidu/ERNIE-4.5-21B-A3B-Thinking) (12,856 downloads, **786** likes) and [`baidu/ERNIE-4.5-VL-28B-A3B-Thinking`](https://huggingface.co/baidu/ERNIE-4.5-VL-28B-A3B-Thinking) (539 likes) — high like-to-download ratios suggest strong interest relative to actual pull.\n- Frontier scale, low adoption: [`baidu/ERNIE-4.5-300B-A47B-PT`](https://huggingface.co/baidu/ERNIE-4.5-300B-A47B-PT) (~300B params, 1,375 downloads) and [`baidu/ERNIE-4.5-VL-424B-A47B-Base-PT`](https://huggingface.co/baidu/ERNIE-4.5-VL-424B-A47B-Base-PT) (~424B params, 142 downloads) — the big MoEs are published but lightly pulled, consistent with their cost.\n\nThe lineup spans a full ladder — 0.3B dense → 21B/28B A3B MoE → 300B/424B A47B MoE — in PT, Base-PT, and Thinking flavors, signaling a deliberate one-family-many-sizes strategy. It also includes a Qianfan VL line ([`baidu/Qianfan-VL-8B`](https://huggingface.co/baidu/Qianfan-VL-8B)) and image variants ([`baidu/ERNIE-Image-Turbo`](https://huggingface.co/baidu/ERNIE-Image-Turbo), [`baidu/ERNIE-Image-Aes`](https://huggingface.co/baidu/ERNIE-Image-Aes)).\n\n**Repos (GitHub stars):**\n- [`PaddlePaddle/PaddleOCR`](https://github.com/PaddlePaddle/PaddleOCR) — **81,367** stars, the dominant asset (PaddleOCR shipped v3.4.1 → v3.6.0 in the recent window).\n- [`PaddlePaddle/Paddle`](https://github.com/PaddlePaddle/Paddle) — 23,938 stars, the core framework.\n- [`PaddlePaddle/PaddleDetection`](https://github.com/PaddlePaddle/PaddleDetection) (14,238), [`PaddlePaddle/PaddleFormers`](https://github.com/PaddlePaddle/PaddleFormers) (12,982), [`PaddlePaddle/PaddleNLP`](https://github.com/PaddlePaddle/PaddleNLP) (12,952), [`PaddlePaddle/PaddleSpeech`](https://github.com/PaddlePaddle/PaddleSpeech) (12,614), [`PaddlePaddle/ERNIE`](https://github.com/PaddlePaddle/ERNIE) (7,722), [`PaddlePaddle/PaddleX`](https://github.com/PaddlePaddle/PaddleX) (6,156).\n\n**Releases:** the recent cadence is heavily PaddleX/PaddleOCR — [PaddleOCR v3.6.0](https://github.com/PaddlePaddle/PaddleOCR/releases/tag/v3.6.0), [PaddleX v3.6.1](https://github.com/PaddlePaddle/PaddleX/releases/tag/v3.6.1) and v3.5.0–v3.6.0, plus [FastDeploy v2.5.0](https://github.com/PaddlePaddle/FastDeploy/releases/tag/v2.5.0) (inference deployment) and [PaddleFormers 1.1.1](https://github.com/PaddlePaddle/PaddleFormers/releases/tag/1.1.1) — i.e. shipping is concentrated on the OCR product surface and the deployment/training tooling around it.\n\n## Research themes\n\nNo first-party writing captured yet.\n\n## Hiring & scaling\n\nOpen roles are entirely US-based (Mountain View and Sunnyvale, CA) and split into two clear buckets:\n\n- **Silicon / ML systems** in Sunnyvale: *Machine Learning System Hardware Architect*, *Machine Learning System Software Architect*, *CPU Digital Design Engineer*, *CPU/GPU/Processor Hardware Architect*, and *Design Verification Engineer*. This is a hardware-and-systems hiring cluster — chip-level design and ML-systems architecture, pointing at in-house compute/accelerator investment rather than model research.\n- **Commercial / GTM** in Mountain View: *GTM Strategy & Operations (AI Desktop & Mobile App)*, *Senior Business Development & Partnerships Manager*, *Advertising Sales Manager*, multiple *Account Manager* and sales/campaign roles, and *Head of Global Business Unit, Baidu USA*. The \"AI Desktop & Mobile App\" GTM role plus the ad-sales and BD weighting signal a US consumer-app monetization and partnerships push.\n\nThere is also an *R&D Software Engineer Lead & CISO* (Mountain View). Notably, the captured roles contain no model-research/applied-science postings — the visible US hiring is hardware-systems + go-to-market, not core model R&D.\n\n## Traction highlights\n\n- **Most-starred repo:** [`PaddlePaddle/PaddleOCR`](https://github.com/PaddlePaddle/PaddleOCR) at **81,367** stars — the standout, several times larger than the core [Paddle](https://github.com/PaddlePaddle/Paddle) framework (23,938).\n- **Most-downloaded model:** [`baidu/Qianfan-OCR`](https://huggingface.co/baidu/Qianfan-OCR) at **204,259** 30-day downloads, narrowly ahead of [`ERNIE-4.5-VL-28B-A3B-PT`](https://huggingface.co/baidu/ERNIE-4.5-VL-28B-A3B-PT) (202,248).\n- **Hacker News:** thin traction — the top thread is [`PaddlePaddle/PaddleOCR`](https://github.com/PaddlePaddle/PaddleOCR) at **19 points / 3 comments**, with [`PaddlePaddle/PaddleSeg`](https://github.com/PaddlePaddle/PaddleSeg) at just 1 point. Baidu's reach shows up in download/star counts, not in HN discussion.\n- **Most-liked models** skew toward the reasoning variants — [`ERNIE-4.5-21B-A3B-Thinking`](https://huggingface.co/baidu/ERNIE-4.5-21B-A3B-Thinking) (786 likes) and [`Qianfan-OCR`](https://huggingface.co/baidu/Qianfan-OCR) (1,177 likes) lead community attention.\n\n## Sources\n\n- ERNIE homepage: https://ernie.baidu.com\n- https://huggingface.co/baidu/Qianfan-OCR\n- https://huggingface.co/baidu/ERNIE-4.5-VL-28B-A3B-PT\n- https://huggingface.co/baidu/ERNIE-4.5-21B-A3B-PT\n- https://huggingface.co/baidu/ERNIE-Image\n- https://huggingface.co/baidu/ERNIE-4.5-21B-A3B-Thinking\n- https://huggingface.co/baidu/ERNIE-4.5-300B-A47B-PT\n- https://huggingface.co/baidu/ERNIE-4.5-VL-424B-A47B-Base-PT\n- https://github.com/PaddlePaddle/PaddleOCR\n- https://github.com/PaddlePaddle/Paddle\n- https://github.com/PaddlePaddle/PaddleX\n- https://github.com/PaddlePaddle/PaddleOCR/releases/tag/v3.6.0\n- https://github.com/PaddlePaddle/PaddleX/releases/tag/v3.6.1\n- https://github.com/PaddlePaddle/FastDeploy/releases/tag/v2.5.0\n- https://github.com/PaddlePaddle/PaddleSeg","generated_at":"2026-06-08T15:59:08.147+00:00","citations":[{"url":"https://huggingface.co/baidu/Qianfan-OCR","path":null,"label":"baidu/Qianfan-OCR","type":"external"},{"url":"https://huggingface.co/baidu/ERNIE-4.5-VL-28B-A3B-PT","path":null,"label":"baidu/ERNIE-4.5-VL-28B-A3B-PT","type":"external"},{"url":"https://huggingface.co/baidu/ERNIE-4.5-21B-A3B-PT","path":null,"label":"baidu/ERNIE-4.5-21B-A3B-PT","type":"external"},{"url":"https://huggingface.co/baidu/ERNIE-Image","path":null,"label":"baidu/ERNIE-Image","type":"external"},{"url":"https://huggingface.co/baidu/ERNIE-4.5-0.3B-PT","path":null,"label":"baidu/ERNIE-4.5-0.3B-PT","type":"external"},{"url":"https://huggingface.co/baidu/ERNIE-4.5-21B-A3B-Thinking","path":null,"label":"baidu/ERNIE-4.5-21B-A3B-Thinking","type":"external"},{"url":"https://huggingface.co/baidu/ERNIE-4.5-VL-28B-A3B-Thinking","path":null,"label":"baidu/ERNIE-4.5-VL-28B-A3B-Thinking","type":"external"},{"url":"https://huggingface.co/baidu/ERNIE-4.5-300B-A47B-PT","path":null,"label":"baidu/ERNIE-4.5-300B-A47B-PT","type":"external"},{"url":"https://huggingface.co/baidu/ERNIE-4.5-VL-424B-A47B-Base-PT","path":null,"label":"baidu/ERNIE-4.5-VL-424B-A47B-Base-PT","type":"external"},{"url":"https://huggingface.co/baidu/Qianfan-VL-8B","path":null,"label":"baidu/Qianfan-VL-8B","type":"external"},{"url":"https://huggingface.co/baidu/ERNIE-Image-Turbo","path":null,"label":"baidu/ERNIE-Image-Turbo","type":"external"},{"url":"https://huggingface.co/baidu/ERNIE-Image-Aes","path":null,"label":"baidu/ERNIE-Image-Aes","type":"external"},{"url":"https://github.com/PaddlePaddle/PaddleOCR","path":null,"label":"PaddlePaddle/PaddleOCR","type":"external"},{"url":"https://github.com/PaddlePaddle/Paddle","path":null,"label":"PaddlePaddle/Paddle","type":"external"},{"url":"https://github.com/PaddlePaddle/PaddleDetection","path":null,"label":"PaddlePaddle/PaddleDetection","type":"external"},{"url":"https://github.com/PaddlePaddle/PaddleFormers","path":null,"label":"PaddlePaddle/PaddleFormers","type":"external"},{"url":"https://github.com/PaddlePaddle/PaddleNLP","path":null,"label":"PaddlePaddle/PaddleNLP","type":"external"},{"url":"https://github.com/PaddlePaddle/PaddleSpeech","path":null,"label":"PaddlePaddle/PaddleSpeech","type":"external"},{"url":"https://github.com/PaddlePaddle/ERNIE","path":null,"label":"PaddlePaddle/ERNIE","type":"external"},{"url":"https://github.com/PaddlePaddle/PaddleX","path":null,"label":"PaddlePaddle/PaddleX","type":"external"},{"url":"https://github.com/PaddlePaddle/PaddleOCR/releases/tag/v3.6.0","path":null,"label":"PaddlePaddle/PaddleOCR","type":"external"},{"url":"https://github.com/PaddlePaddle/PaddleX/releases/tag/v3.6.1","path":null,"label":"PaddlePaddle/PaddleX","type":"external"},{"url":"https://github.com/PaddlePaddle/FastDeploy/releases/tag/v2.5.0","path":null,"label":"PaddlePaddle/FastDeploy","type":"external"},{"url":"https://github.com/PaddlePaddle/PaddleFormers/releases/tag/1.1.1","path":null,"label":"PaddlePaddle/PaddleFormers","type":"external"},{"url":"https://github.com/PaddlePaddle/PaddleSeg","path":null,"label":"PaddlePaddle/PaddleSeg","type":"external"},{"url":"https://ernie.baidu.com","path":null,"label":"ernie.baidu.com","type":"external"}],"provenance":{"provider":null,"model":null,"workflow":"synthesize-analyses","agent":null},"evidence":{"total":null,"pages":null,"events":null,"web":null,"signal_desks":null,"data_radar_lanes":null,"data_radar_matches":null}},"signal_counts":{"total":385,"model_released":30,"release":206,"repo_new":100,"repo_forked":5,"post_published":18,"job_opened":26}}