TOP BIT
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is shutting down its AI Shanghai lablet—opened in 2018—which was the last AWS research center outside the United States. Officially, the cloud team cites “strategic adjustments to the China–US reality.”
The closure comes amid Amazon’s latest round of AWS layoffs and just days before the World AI Conference in Shanghai. It follows similar withdrawals by Microsoft and IBM from China.
The Details
🏢 Lab Shutdown Confirmed: All researchers will be reassigned or leave the company, and the site will be decommissioned.
⚙️ Tech Legacy: The team developed the Deep Graph Library open-source framework for graph neural networks.
🇺🇸 🇨🇳 Geopolitics: US chip controls and Beijing’s self-sufficiency plans complicate trans-Pacific AI research.
📉 Trend: After the Kindle Store (2022) and Marketplace (2019), this is Amazon’s third major China retreat; Microsoft recently offered overseas positions to up to 800 AI engineers.
🗓️ Timing: The shutdown was announced days before the Shanghai AI expo—where the lab was ceremonially unveiled in 2018.
Why It Matters
Tech Decoupling: Western firms are relocating cutting-edge research out of China, escalating the digital Cold War.
Knowledge Drain: Fewer US labs in China mean reduced access to the latest AI know-how for Chinese research centers.
Talent War: The exodus of highly qualified researchers worsens the skills shortage in China’s AI sector.
Background
Since 2022, an increasing number of US tech companies have exited China’s AI ecosystem due to tighter US export controls, Beijing’s push for self-reliance, and rising political risks for Western firms.
Concurrently, US corporations are recruiting hundreds of Chinese AI developers via transfer programs to locations such as Singapore and Seattle.
📊 All Data & Details: CNBC, Times of India, Caixin Global
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