Is Microsoft Moving its AI Talent Out of China?

Tech giant Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) is moving some of its artificial intelligence (AI) researchers from China to Canada, the Financial Times reported. The company has started applying for visas to shift about 20 to 40 AI experts from its Beijing-based Microsoft Research Asia (MSRA) lab. The move comes amid escalating tensions between the U.S. and China. While Microsoft agreed that it is establishing a new lab in Canada, it said that the number of people that the Financial Times said are being moved was inaccurate.

MSFT Shifting Key AI Talent Out of China
Meanwhile, sources think that another reason behind the decision to move some of the staff out of China-based MSRA is to prevent talent from being poached by domestic tech companies, which are aggressively looking for AI researchers to develop generative AI applications following the hype created by OpenAI’s ChatGPT.