Microsoft Retreats In China (reuters.com)
- Reference: 0184962273
- News link: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/08/13/2114239/microsoft-retreats-in-china
- Source link: https://www.reuters.com/world/china/microsoft-retreats-china-ai-boom-helps-it-keep-window-open-2026-08-13/
> Microsoft took a major hit from the erosion of trust between Washington and Beijing, the five people said. China has since 2017 pushed the use of domestic software, which Beijing sees as more secure and whose quality is increasingly competitive with Windows and Office. U.S. restrictions, including export controls on advanced technology, have meanwhile hindered efforts to scale Microsoft's lucrative AI and cloud businesses in China.
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> [...] Microsoft ultimately decided to remain because it had carved out a profitable business servicing Chinese companies like TikTok owner ByteDance, which need Western technology to manage overseas operations, according to three people familiar with the matter. The company also believed that it needed a presence to maintain access to China's world-class engineering talent, two of them said. Microsoft had also cultivated a relationship with the government that is among the deepest of any tech company, its former China head Alain Crozier told Reuters. "Because of the geopolitics ... some days it's a little bit harder, but we never had a crisis," he said.
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> A Microsoft spokesperson did not address questions about the firm's deliberations on its China business but said it operates in a regulatory "environment that applies to every international supplier" and that it remains committed to the Chinese market. The state of Microsoft's China business reflects market competition, regulatory demands and technological trends, the company said.
[1] https://www.reuters.com/world/china/microsoft-retreats-china-ai-boom-helps-it-keep-window-open-2026-08-13/
introduction of new economic model? (Score:1)
Economics: export/import -> fiscal policy -> cultural corporate products (Microsoft, apple, GE, etc) And above is a class of artificial intelligence software writhing through and over, and encompassing, these forces, impacting them, I wonder, how?
Nobody (Score:1)
Should be using MS software in 2026.
Decline. (Score:4, Insightful)
I've noticed huge american companies are scaling back, leaving the world to China and India and others. Temu and similar companies are eating Amazon's lunch out there. Our car companies are producing far more expensive and inferior cars and wouldn't be able to compete internationally, but are protected by the goverment here. Airbus seems to be taking lots of marketshare from Boing. A lot of this is the result of tarriffs and the pointlessly setting fire to our international relationships we've built up for decades at considerable expense but I think there's also just a sense of laziness and complacency. Stocks are going up, the american market is the biggest more lucrative one, so why bother compete internationally? Microsoft could keep going in China, but nah, there's not a lot of profit there currently, so why bother? That's obviously shortsited and short-term thinking, but whose incentivizing anyone to do any other kind of thinking?
Re:Decline. (Score:4, Informative)
Every empire rises, declines, and eventually falls into ignominy.
The USA has been in ascendance for the past century. We are now early in the period of decline. Likely still the most powerful nation in many ways, but clearly losing ground in many more.
Re: (Score:1)
No need for military expansionism to end declining, what you need is expense, lack of innovation and competition... yes, war can help too, but that is usually in the expense issue
Too much wasted money in luxury or war, while give healthy short term, don't scale and in a long term bleed the country fortune to others
Innovation, if other countries have newer ideas, your core business can be replaced and that make a long chain reaction in the economy, it may take many years, but it will corrode your power
Compet
Re: (Score:2)
> America can easily take all of Canada and Mexico...
All that tequila and maple syrup sounds like a fun weekend but I'm not sure it would be worth the hangover.
Re: (Score:2)
> You're skipping the step where the failing empire undergoes a period of rapid military expansionism in order to fill its coffers by looting other countries.
Did you miss the last fifty years?
We're past the military building phase of collapse and well into the loot-the-treasury phase. There's no way to unite America into a massive military buildup because half the population are immigrants who would leave and the other half have no desire to fight for the Epstein Regime.
They don't have a choice (Score:1)
They're not scaling back because they want to Trump has completely wrecked America on the international stage and it's taking everything American down with it.
Intelligent people warned us however nobody listens to them because to be blunt they're kind of insufferable. On the other hand we probably should not have had to be warned that unknown rapist, pedophile and convicted felon with ties to the Russian mafia shouldn't have been president.
Re: (Score:2)
Intelligent people have warned for decades about the perils of exporting industry to hostile countries. It's the midwits who thought it was great to ship everything to China because Muh Efficiency.
Trump is trying to bring that manufacturing back, but it's far too late. The 'elite' are far too corrupt and far too incompetent to actually rebuild a working society.
Re: Decline. (Score:2)
Everyone prepping for wartime economies.
lol no (Score:2)
Foreign companies are leaving China in droves. The domestic market is collapsing there.
Re: (Score:2)
Microsoft has previously capitulated to the US government and handed over customer data it holds even when outside US jurisdiction. Why would anyone trust Microsoft to secure their data?
Microsoft operating systems are constantly sending telemetry - even screenshots - back to HQ. Why would you want to use an OS that spies on you?
Groundhog day... (Score:3)
This is at least the 2nd time they've done a retreat in China.
There has never been a level playing field there for foreign companies.
Re: (Score:3)
Just enough profit so companies will come there and China can steal everything.
Re: (Score:2)
The Communist Party always needs to maintain a controlling stake of the company and it's obvious why this is not palatable to foreign companies for a variety of reasons.
Re: (Score:3)
Microsoft would simultaneously have you believe that their products are so good people can't help but want to use them, and that China is a hard place to sell a product in successfully so of course it only makes sense for them to withdraw.
Fact is, all of Microsoft's products are outshone by someone else's now, and many of them are free , and most of them are even Free!
Microsoft has already been transitioning towards being a service company more than a product company with Azure and 365. They are an IBM or Or
Re: Groundhog day... (Score:1)
Stop sniffing glue drinkypoo. If you think microsoftâ(TM)s cloud business is like IBM, you should probably stop drinking too
Microsoft, LOL (Score:3)
Yeah, letting China perform tech support for the DoD was probably the most boneheaded move ever. Bravo Microsoft ... Bravo.
A different kind of security (Score:5, Insightful)
Chinese software is "more secure" by a very narrow definition of security. It's primarily national (Party) security they are worried about. That includes the need to spy on their own citizens. So it is intentionally insecure in almost every way that we would generally think of software security, but more "secure" for the CCP.
Re: A different kind of security (Score:1)
Anonymous Communist
Re: A different kind of security (Score:1)
See that's the narrative that Americans love to tell themselves. But in reality the Chinese know that hidden backdoors don't stay hidden, and their national interest is best served by making software and devices secure for everyone. They don't need to spy on their citizens with secret software backdoors when cameras are on every corner and social credit records are openly implemented.
They saw the idiotic attempts the Americans made with stuff like the clipper chip. They won't make that same mistake.
Re: A different kind of security (Score:2)
Why bother compromising the software when you've already compromised the hardware? Why bother compromising the application when you've already compromised the operating system? Is hardware or software made by USA companies really any different?