Amazon Shuts Down Shanghai AI Lab Amid Strategic Restructuring

Amazon has shuttered its Shanghai-based AI research lab, marking the end of a six-year operation that contributed significantly to the company's cloud and machine learning initiatives. The AWS-affiliated unit, established in 2018, published over 100 academic papers and developed revenue-generating neural network tools before falling victim to geopolitical tensions and corporate restructuring.

"We've made the difficult business decision to eliminate some roles across particular teams in AWS," said spokesperson Brad Glasser. Senior scientist Wang Minjie confirmed the dissolution on WeChat, citing "strategic adjustments amid US-China tensions" as the driving factor. The MOVE follows Microsoft's earlier withdrawal of IoT and AI operations from China.

While Amazon hasn't disclosed affected employee numbers, sources indicate the AWS China division once employed over 1,000 personnel. The closure reflects a broader retreat of US tech firms from Chinese research ventures, despite the Shanghai lab's claimed $1 billion revenue contribution through its open-source graph neural network framework.