Microsoft Debates What to Do With A.I. Lab in China

When Microsoft opened an advanced research lab in Beijing in 1998, it was a time of optimism about technology and China.

The company hired hundreds of researchers for the lab, which pioneered Microsoft’s work in speech, image and facial recognition and the kind of artificial intelligence that later gave rise to online chatbots like ChatGPT. The Beijing operation eventually became one of the most important A.I. labs in the world. Bill Gates, Microsoft’s co-founder, called it an opportunity to tap China’s “deep pool of intellectual talent.”

But as tensions between the United States and China have mounted over which nation will lead the world’s technological future, Microsoft’s top leaders — including Satya Nadella, its chief executive, and Brad Smith, its president — have debated what to do with the prized lab for at least the past year, four current and former Microsoft employees said.

The company has faced questions from U.S. officials over whether maintaining an 800-person advanced technologies lab in China is tenable, the people said. Microsoft said it had instituted guardrails at the lab, restricting researchers from politically sensitive work.

The company, which is based in Redmond, Wash., said it had also opened an outpost of the lab in Vancouver, British Columbia, and would move some researchers from China to the location. The outpost is a backup if more researchers need to relocate, two people said. The idea of shutting down or moving the lab has come up, but Microsoft’s leaders support continuing it in China, four people said.

“We are as committed as ever to the lab and the world-class research of this team,” Peter Lee, who leads Microsoft Research, a network of eight labs across the world, said in a statement.