Chinese tech giant Baidu saw its shares in Hong Kong soar as much as 12% on Wednesday as the company ramps up its artificial intelligence plans and partnerships. 

Shares in the Beijing-based firm, which holds a dominant position in China’s search engine market, had gained 9% overnight in U.S. trading.

The strong stock performance comes after Baidu earlier this week secured an AI-related deal with China Merchants Group, a major state-owned enterprise, focused on transportation, finance, and property development. 

“Both sides plan to focus on applications of large language models, AI agents and ‘digital employees,’ vowing to make scalable and sustainable progress in industrial intelligence based on real-life business scenarios,” according to Baidu’s statement translated by CNBC.

Baidu has been aggressively pursuing its AI business, which includes its popular large language model and AI chat bot Ernie Bot. 

On Tuesday the company disclosed a 4.4 billion yuan ($56.2 million) offshore bond offering due 2029, in a move that will help grow its war chest as it seeks to compete in China’s competitive AI space.

Other Chinese AI players like Tencent have also been raising funds including via debt sale this year as they pour billions into their AI capabilities.