Microsoft has closed fifteen sites in China in five years

Microsoft has closed at least fifteen offices and joint ventures in China over the past five years. Reuters reports the figure, noting that the group nonetheless keeps a selective presence in the country.

The economic weight of the Chinese market explains much of the decision. In 2024 China generated 1.5% of Microsoft's global revenue, a share that does not justify an extensive structure. In 2023 the company considered leaving the country altogether, an option it later dropped.

Three factors drove the reduction. United States restrictions on exports of advanced technology limit what the company can sell in China. Beijing's policies favour domestic software in public procurement and state enterprises. On top comes an assessment of geopolitical risk judged to be high.

Why it is not leaving entirely

What remains serves three purposes. The first is to support Chinese companies with international operations, which need cloud infrastructure and tools compatible with the markets where they work: groups such as ByteDance, owner of TikTok, and Shein fall into this category. The second is access to the pool of Chinese engineers specialising in artificial intelligence. The third is supplying cloud services and AI tools to local firms.

The case illustrates a pattern spreading among large American technology suppliers: not a clean exit but a reduced presence, reoriented towards clients operating outside China's borders. It is the same logic that has led other groups to keep research centres while no longer selling directly on the domestic market.

For Swiss companies working with China the question is practical: the choice of IT provider determines which data can be processed where, and the fragmentation of infrastructure makes running subsidiaries in both markets more complex.