Microsoft Shutters Shanghai Lab In Latest China Pullback

Microsoft has shuttered an Internet of Things (IoT) and AI lab it operated in Shanghai, in the company’s latest move to pull back from its investments in China amidst increasing geopolitical tensions.

The IoT & AI Insider Lab, located in the Zhangjiang AI Island in Shanghai’s Zhangjiang high-tech zone, closed earlier this year, according to local media reports citing people who work in the area.

The lab, which Microsoft created in May 2019, was intended to boost domestic development of IoT and AI technologies.

Collaboration

The lab is now dark, with the logo removed and office equipment cleared out, according to a report by Hong Kong-based newspaper The South China Morning Post.

Workers in the area said the lab closed in either January or February.

Large tech firms including German chipmaker Infineon and Chinese search provider Baidu have offices in the zone.

Microsoft said in 2019 that the lab would collaborate with companies in Zhangjiang, where numerous domestic and international AI and semiconductor companies have facilities.

The 2,800-square-metre lab was to “help professionals from related enterprises to develop multi-field integration and make full use of scientific research resources in Microsoft and Zhangjiang”, Microsoft said at the time.

As of its fifth anniversary last June it had supported 258 projects involving nearly 100 companies from Shanghai’s tech hub, attracting more than 9.4 billion yuan ($1.3bn, £1bn) in external investments and training nearly 10,000 professionals, according to a report published by the high-tech zone.

Reduced presence

Microsoft operates similar labs in Seattle, San Francisco, Milwaukee, Munich, Montevideo and Kobe.

Last May Microsoft offered relocation options to 700 to 800 of its skilled staff in China and carried out large-scale layoffs as it reduced its presence in the country, in addition to closing all its authorised bricks-and-mortar stores on the mainland.

The company’s president, Brad Smith, told a congressional hearing in June of last year that China accounted for only about 1.5 percent of the company’s global revenue.