Microsoft and Apple do business in China, yet somehow it's Google that's apparently working with the Chinese. These people are honestly out of their mind.

?

The logic is really not too complicated. China is using AI to spy on citizens -- Google is creating and freely publishing state of the art versions of this AI. It's pretty clear that there is a worry here.

Perhaps it is Linus Torvalds who is the real villain, making freely available a crucial piece of software that China is using to power its surveillance infrastructure. I say we put him to death for his treasonous actions against the free world.

I always find reasoning like this to be weak. Why is it on Google that China is run by the morally bankrupt?

So are a lot of other people. We are in yet another AI bubble. It is far, FAR from the first, and will not be the last. Thiel is just yet again trying to paint the ordinary, boring daily activities of his ideological opponents as somehow bad and use the military-industrial complex and national security apparatus of a country he defected from to try and violently suppress them. Another right-wing terrorist isn't news and we should stop giving their insane ramblings coverage.

To further your point, Apple doesn't just do business in China, they manufacture in China.

The reasons why you consider Baidu not as good are probably not technical, but are due to censorship and Baidu's abandonment of non-Chinese websites and pages.