Microsoft retreats in China, but AI boom helps it keep a window open

BEIJING/SHANGHAI: Microsoft once regarded the idea ​of quitting China as unthinkable. The year was 2010 and Google was about to exit due to concerns over censorship and cyberattacks. That decision was lauded by democracy activists, but not Bill Gates and Microsoft’s then-CEO Steve ​Ballmer, who suggested Google was overreacting.

In the past five years, however, at least 15 Microsoft branch offices and joint ventures in China have been shut, corporate filings show, and Microsoft is pursuing what five company sources described as a strategy of retreat.