Why Amazon is shutting down its AI lab in China
What's the story
Amazon is closing its artificial intelligence (AI) lab in Shanghai, The Financial Times has reported. The move comes as US-China tensions rise and the US government tightens scrutiny of American firms operating in China. Wang Minjie, a scientist at the Shanghai lab, confirmed that his team was "being dissolved due to strategic adjustments amid US-China tensions," according to a WeChat post cited by FT.
Legacy
Shanghai lab was set up in 2018
Amazon Web Services (AWS) established its Shanghai lab in 2018. Although the exact headcount at the lab is unclear, it was previously reported that AWS had over 1,000 employees in China at its peak. The FT report comes as Amazon joins a growing list of tech giants including Microsoft and Meta in announcing global job cuts this year, amid their increasing reliance on artificial intelligence.
Achievements
What did the AI lab do?
Despite its small size, the Shanghai lab made significant contributions to the field of machine learning. It published over 100 top-tier research papers and developed the Deep Graph Library. The tool alone is said to have generated almost $1 billion in e-commerce revenue for Amazon, highlighting the impact of a small team on a major corporation's bottom line.