This is not the case. Probably more relevant is that there are dedicated AI / Cloud Computing meetups and groups in the Bellevue and Seattle area that employee

This is not the case. Probably more relevant is that there are dedicated AI / Cloud Computing meetups and groups in the Bellevue and Seattle area that employees of all the companies attend. This means that the people that do this research and build these products frequently chat with each other. I know my counterparts at AWS as a result and as we are friends, I push for collaboration whenever opportunities arise. At least on the MS side of the house these sorts of outreach and collaborative projects are a ground up push.