Amazon announced the closure of its artificial intelligence (AI) research institute in Shanghai, which was the company’s last overseas AI research facility. Analysts point out that this move highlights the escalating trend of the decoupling of U.S.-China technology and reflects the continued contraction of American businesses in China.
On Wednesday, the chief applied scientist of the institute, Wang Minjie, stated on social media that the team was disbanded due to “strategic adjustments between China and the U.S.” This comes at a time when the decoupling of U.S.-China technology is intensifying, with many American companies gradually resizing their research and development presence in China.
Established in the fall of 2018 by Shanghai Jiaotong University Computer Science Professor Zhang Zheng, the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Shanghai AI research institute primarily focused on graph neural networks and machine learning research, as well as developing the open-source framework DGL. Wang Minjie mentioned that this technology helped Amazon generate approximately $1 billion in revenue.
AWS’s cloud business in China primarily served multinational corporations based in China, as well as Chinese technology companies utilizing AWS technology for global deployments. According to sources cited by the Financial Times, AWS’s workforce in China peaked at over 1,000 employees.
Amazon spokesperson Brad Glasser stated on Wednesday, “After a thorough evaluation of the company’s organization, development focus, and future strategic direction, we have decided to streamline personnel for certain teams at Amazon Web Services. Making these decisions has been extremely difficult for us.”
He added, “We have made these necessary decisions to continue investing, optimizing resources, and bringing more innovation to our customers.”
The Financial Times noted that the closure of the Shanghai research institute coincides with Amazon’s global workforce reductions. CEO Andy Jassy previously warned employees last month that as artificial intelligence becomes more widespread, it would lead to internal workforce reductions.
The report also highlighted that Amazon is not the only American company downsizing its operations in China. According to sources cited by the Financial Times, management consulting firm McKinsey recently barred its Chinese business unit from participating in any consulting projects related to generative AI, in response to Washington’s scrutiny pressure on sensitive technologies.
In recent years, the U.S. has strengthened export controls on chips and cloud services, limiting China’s access to advanced equipment. Consequently, the collaboration space between Chinese AI researchers and overseas teams is gradually shrinking. Analysts believe that the trend of technological decoupling has spread to foreign consulting firms, law firms, and investment institutions in professional service fields.