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IBM is closing its research and development operations in China, resulting in the loss of 1,000 jobs, the South China Morning Post reports, citing local Chinese news outlets.
Jack Hergenrother, IBM's VP of global enterprise systems development, confirmed the R&D shutdown in China to IBM employees in a meeting on Monday, citing Chinese competition, The Wall Street Journal reports. Plus, IBM's infrastructure business has not been doing as well in recent years, the executive reportedly said. IBM saw its revenue from China fall nearly 20% last year amid ongoing tech industry tensions between the US and China.
IBM is planning to hire R&D staff in other locations, like India, according to employees familiar with the plans. Over 1,000 IBM employees in China are expected to lose their jobs, impacting staff in cities like Shanghai and Beijing. At time of writing, IBM's research division only shows a handful of jobs available based in either Japan, the US, or Singapore. IBM has not yet responded to PCMag's request for comment.
IBM's research primarily focuses on artificial intelligence development, semiconductor research, quantum computing, and cloud computing technology, according to the company's website. In recent months, IBM launched an AI development platform for engineers called InstructLab and open-sourced some of its Granite AI models.
Geopolitical tensions between the US and China have ramped up in recent years since the US banned the export of advanced AI chips to China in 2022. China has since taken aim at some US chip manufacturers, like Micron, and is reportedly phasing out other US chips from firms like Intel and AMD from its government devices.
The US continues to restrict Nvidia's most powerful chips from being sent to China, but many investigations have found that Chinese researchers are still getting their hands on the technology despite the ongoing ban by using loopholes like buying server hardware or sneaking chips in via other countries like Singapore.