(Reuters) – Microsoft is asking some China-based employees to consider moving abroad, the company said on Thursday, as U.S.-China relations strain amid a race for cutting-edge technology. It was announced on .
The U.S. government is seeking to restrict Beijing’s access to advanced chips used for AI applications on the grounds that they could be used to strengthen its military, sparking tensions that will put pressure on U.S. companies operating in China. There is.
The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the news, said Microsoft is asking about 700 to 800 people working in machine learning and other cloud computing jobs to consider relocating.
“Offering in-house opportunities is a regular part of managing our global business. As part of this process, some employees will and optional internal transfer opportunities,” he said, without disclosing the number of employees. I sent a request to.
A Microsoft spokesperson said the company remains committed to China and continues to operate in China and other markets.
The Windows maker is one of the US companies with the largest presence in China. It entered the market in 1992 and operates a large research and development center in the country.
The employees, most of whom are Chinese engineers, were offered the option of relocation to the United States, Ireland, Australia or New Zealand earlier this week, the Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. .
Reuters could not immediately confirm these details.
The move comes days after U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration raised tariffs on a range of Chinese imports, including electric vehicle batteries, computer chips and medical products.
Reuters reported earlier this month that the U.S. Department of Commerce is considering new regulations that would limit the export of proprietary and closed-source AI models. The software for the AI model and the data used to train it are kept secret.
(Reporting by Kanjik Ghosh, Surbhi Misra, Akash Sriram and Fanny Potkin in Bengaluru; Editing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee)
