Work and study or study only?

I’m currently a SWE at MS in a none AI related team.
I would like to work on NLP more research based.
I’m self studying but without access to heavy GPUs I’m limited in what I can do.
I’m also building a network of researchers at MS and LinkedIn.
Eventually I would like to start a company. (No real idea in mind yet).
I have two options I’m considering as paths for my future but I welcome the community suggestions.

Option 1:
Leave my company and go do a masters in Germany (Good Courses and Free) and try to start a company with the people I meet there and knowledge I gain.

Option 2:
Stay in company, try to switch to RSWE or Applied Scientist position while doing a masters at somewhere like UW Bothell (Kinda weak courses IMO but idk much about the program and expensive because out of state tuition since I haven’t lived in Washington long enough) and then start a company.

I’m open to other paths, other masters suggestions, but I want to start my masters this fall and I want a thesis based one with opportunities to do research and courses in NLP, CV, and Reinforcement learning and a seminar.

Thoughts? #career #seattle #startup #ai