India · Pentagon · Microsoft · China · The Register
Red Hat RHELocates its Chinese engineering team to India
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Red Hat appears to have fired its entire engineering team in China, which it no longer thinks is a country it needs to prioritize.
Key facts
- Red Hat has supplied various branches of the US military with its products for many years and, in 2024, scored a $848 million deal under the Department of Defense Enterprise Software Initiative
- Numerous reports in Chinese media mention 300 to 500 layoffs, and a memo sent by Red Hat CTO Chris Wright
- Red Hat’s parent company IBM says it has more staff in India than the USA and 264,000 staff overall
- Secretary of Defense Pete Hegeseth said Microsoft “exposed the Defense Department to unacceptable risk
Summary
One of the first signs of the decision was a Xeet from a Chinese user with the handle, who claimed a friend told them Red Hat’s engineering team has “graduated”, ironic Chinese slang for being fired. A Hacker News post from a user who claims to be a principal software engineer at Red Hat China says that, on Thursday, he “woke up. and noticed that I couldn't log in to the VPN. Numerous reports in Chinese media mention 300 to 500 layoffs, and a memo sent by Red Hat CTO Chris Wright. A document posted by FOSS advocacy site Techrights appears to be that memo and explains that Red Hat has devised a “location strategy” under which it has “identified key sites for prioritized hiring and strategic workforce investment.”