A few days ago, Zhang Weizhong, Chairman of Shanghai Pudong Development Bank Co.,Ltd., and Robin Li, founder of Baidu, held a meeting.
Both attended the signing ceremony for a strategic cooperation agreement between Shanghai Pudong Development Bank Co.,Ltd. and the Baidu Group. Also present were Xie Wei, President of Shanghai Pudong Development Bank Co.,Ltd., and Shen Dou, Executive Vice President of the Baidu Group, among others.
Judging by the senior management lineup, both sides attach significant importance to this collaboration.
Beyond formal pleasantries, their discussions focused on substantive follow-up cooperation.
Zhang Weizhong expressed hope for deepening cooperation in areas such as cash management, cross-border finance, treasury management, information technology innovation transformation, and AI empowerment. He emphasized establishing a regular high-level communication mechanism to promote mutual integration of strengths and resource sharing, jointly supporting the high-quality development of Shanghai as an international financial center.
Robin Li hoped for deepened collaboration in traditional finance and digital transformation, strengthening the integration and innovation of AI technology with financial services to jointly unleash the effectiveness of bank-enterprise cooperation.
In recent years, cooperation between Shanghai Pudong Development Bank Co.,Ltd. and Baidu has been quite close. As early as the 2019 Baidu AI Developer Conference, the "digital human" Xiao Pu demonstrated by Robin Li was the first domestic bank "virtual employee" jointly created by Baidu Intelligent Cloud and Shanghai Pudong Development Bank Co.,Ltd. Subsequently, Xiao Pu has been gradually implemented across various branches of Shanghai Pudong Development Bank Co.,Ltd.
For Shanghai Pudong Development Bank Co.,Ltd., this is a critical stage in its digital and intelligent transformation, and collaborating with leading technology companies aligns with the trend. The bank is continuously increasing its investment in technological resources. In 2025, Shanghai Pudong Development Bank Co.,Ltd.'s investment in information technology reached 7.612 billion yuan, an increase of 443 million yuan or 6.18% from the previous year. Over the past three years, the bank's total investment in information technology has amounted to 21.75 billion yuan.
Simultaneously, Shanghai Pudong Development Bank Co.,Ltd.'s digital and intelligent strategy has yielded certain results. In 2025, the scale of its technology finance loans (according to People's Bank of China statistics) reached 1.04 trillion yuan, a 72.6% increase from 602.4 billion yuan the previous year. During the same period, it served over 256,000 technology enterprises, an increase of 185,000 from 71,000 the previous year. Notably, in 2023, Shanghai Pudong Development Bank Co.,Ltd. served only 50,000 technology enterprises. This demonstrates the considerable effort the bank has invested in advancing its digital and intelligent strategy.
The bank has even implemented organizational restructuring, forming a structure comprising "Group Big Science & Innovation + Technology Finance Task Force + Head Office Technology Finance Department + Branch Technology Finance Departments + Technology (Specialized) Sub-branches." It has established 510 technology (specialized) sub-branches nationwide. The 2025 annual report revealed that Shanghai Pudong Development Bank Co.,Ltd. established a Direct Operations Center and an Artificial Intelligence Center, focusing on core areas such as fintech, AI, and big data, attracting and nurturing over 900紧缺科技人才.
Furthermore, Shanghai Pudong Development Bank Co.,Ltd.'s subsidiary, Shanghai Science and Technology Innovation Bank, is the first domestic bank dedicated to providing science and technology financial services in the innovation sector. However, it has been noted that the performance of Shanghai Science and Technology Innovation Bank is not ideal. In 2025, it achieved operating revenue of 421 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 7.67%, and a net profit of 55 million yuan, down 22.5% year-on-year, with both revenue and profit declining. Shanghai Science and Technology Innovation Bank focuses on five core industrial innovation areas: digital transformation, intelligent manufacturing, semiconductors, life sciences and healthcare, and climate technology and new energy, providing comprehensive financial services throughout the enterprise lifecycle. As of the end of 2025, its total assets were 23.946 billion yuan, an increase of 1.861 billion yuan from the end of the previous year, and its net assets were 2.261 billion yuan, an increase of 46 million yuan from the end of the previous year.
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