Quick Take: Baidu Invests in Smart-TV Maker

Internet giant Baidu Inc. has invested $1 billion yuan ($158 million) into one of China’s largest producers of smart TVs, Caixin has learned.

The capital injection into Shenzhen Coocaa Network Technology Co. Ltd. makes Baidu the firm’s second-largest stakeholder, with an 11% stake, and puts Coocaa’s valuation at 9.6 billion yuan.

Coocaa CEO Wang Zhiguo said the company will incorporate Baidu’s latest artificial intelligence technology into selected models of its smart TVs, which are scheduled to be rolled out as early as this year. Baidu is in a race to develop artificial intelligence, and has made moves to work with hardware partners.

Coocaa was set up in 2013 by Hong Kong-listed Skyworth Digital Holdings Ltd., as Chinese consumers increasingly turned to smart television sets, which can access the internet without additional hardware, to view shows, shop, play games and pay bills.

Video-streaming site iQiyi, which Baidu owns, invested 150 million yuan in Coocaa in 2016, while another internet heavyweight, Tencent Holdings Ltd., acquired a 300-million-yuan stake in the TV-maker last year.

Contact reporter Jason Tan (jasontan@caixin.com)