Microsoft is asking nearly 10% of its China-based workforce to move to the U.S., Ireland, Australia, or New Zealand. According to Reuters, most affected workers are Chinese engineers working in the company’s machine learning and cloud computing divisions — key battlegrounds that the U.S. and China are vying for in their bid to gain technological supremacy.
This announcement came soon after the White House’s press release announcing increased tariffs on high-tech Chinese goods and can be seen as Microsoft’s reaction to keep the U.S. government happy. However, a Microsoft spokesperson said in an emailed statement to Reuters that this was just a routine business move.
