The Pentagon is reportedly considering dumping a $10 billion cloud-computing contract awarded to Microsoft that has been delayed due to criticism from lawmakers and continued litigation by Amazon.
In 2019, the Pentagon awarded the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure contract to Microsoft, surprising analysts who had expected Amazon to win the contract. Amazon filed suit to try to reverse that decision, claiming that President Trump’s long-standing feud with CEO Jeff Bezos had caused him to get involved and improperly influence Pentagon officials to steer the contract to Microsoft.
Last year, the Pentagon’s inspector general found no smoking gun that would indicate foul play, but the verdict was far from decisive. And in April, a federal judge denied a Pentagon motion to dismiss much of Amazon’s case.
Given the continued uncertainty, the Pentagon is now considering pulling the plug on JEDI, according to a Wall Street Journal report. The newspaper cited comments by Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks, who said the prospect of lengthy litigation could bring the future of the procurement “into question.”
JEDI is an ambitious effort to consolidate many of the Pentagon’s data systems under one roof, in theory allowing better and more speedy access to data and providing the foundation for the department to continue to develop artificial intelligence capabilities. But the scale of the effort, and the winner-take-all nature of the contract, have made it a target of critics who claim the Pentagon would be better served by awarding a series of smaller, more-targeted contracts.
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