Baidu beats revenue estimates helped by AI, cloud services

May 26 (Reuters) - China's search engine giant Baidu Inc surpassed quarterly revenue estimates on Thursday as a resurgence of COVID-19 in China and accompanying restrictions boosted demand for its cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) products. The news drove Baidu's U.S.-listed shares more than 5% up in pre-market trading even as the company cautioned that the second quarter would be more challenging. Revenue for the three months to March 31 rose 1% to 28.41 billion yuan ($4.22 billion), the slowest growth in six quarters, but topped an analysts' average estimate of 27.82 billion, IBES data from Refinitiv showed. It posted a net loss of 885 million yuan, or 2.87 yuan per American Depository Share (ADS), amid an economic downturn and pandemic resurgence in China. A year earlier it had posted a profit of 25.65 billion yuan, or 73.76 yuan per ADS.