Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq:MSFT) president Brad Smith hailed Vancouver's technology scene and called technology a bridge that can connect people despite geopolitics in his speech this week at Web Summit.
His company in 2023 employed 1,700 workers in Vancouver at multiple sites.
"We value we often get to contribute to what has become part of Canada, part of Vancouver today: a growing, prosperous land of innovation, a place here in Vancouver that has innovation with startups and everything from AI to quantum and beyond," Smith said at the large technology conference held at the Vancouver Convention Centre.
He alluded to the cross-border tension stirred by U.S. President Donald Trump threatening and levying tariffs on Canada.
"Not every year is easy, but our support for Canada is steadfast," Smith said.
"We not only are dedicated, but devoted to the success of this great nation, a nation that, as the Peace Arch says when you cross the border, it reflects two countries that are populated by children of a common mother."
Much of Smith's speech focused on how technology can benefit people's lives, how innovation is constant and how the future with AI should be crafted in a way to benefit all people.
He elaborated on all the inventions made possible by electricity, which included the electric light bulb in 1878. When he showed a nighttime map of the world, with cities glowing, he noted that most of Africa was dark because 43 per cent of the people on the continent do not have electricity.
Economics, geopolitics and colonialism are some of the reasons why that is, Smith said, noting that it was a great failure to not have more people in Africa with access to electricity.
Technology, he said, should be a bridge that overcomes politics and other obstacles.
"This is a challenging year," Smith said.
"It's a year where geopolitics is in the news every day, and coming from the United States to Canada, it is an opportunity to reflect on that. We all have our own roles to play, but I think in business, one of our roles is to be a bridge, to be a bridge between communities and people, to be a bridge between technologists and customers, to be a bridge across borders and even across oceans.
“Business needs to be a bridge. The products that you are creating, the technology that we are all creating, can be part of that bridge. None of us has the ability, by ourselves, to solve the problems of the world, but as business leaders, individually and collectively, we have a role to play, even when governments disagree.
“We can be a bridge for bringing people together. That's what we've done here in Canada for 40 years, that's something that we look forward to doing 40 years and beyond into the future."
“I would be thrilled, on behalf of all the employees in Redmond, [Wash., where the company’s global head office is located] if the headquarters for Microsoft Canada were in Vancouver,” Smith said at the time, while in Vancouver to officially open a 142,000-square-foot, $100-million office above Pacific Centre.
“[But] there’s 32 million people in Canada so we also have to pay attention to where they live and not just to where we want to vacation.”
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