Microsoft employees ask CEO Satya Nadella not to work on military technology

A group of Microsoft Corp. employees are demanding that the company abandon a $480 million contract with the U.S. Army to build versions of its HoloLens augmented reality headsets for the battlefield, the latest in a series of protests from workers at technology companies objecting to certain uses of the products they’re building.

“We are alarmed that Microsoft is working to provide weapons technology to the U.S. Military, helping one country’s government ‘increase lethality’ using tools we built,” said the workers in a letter that began circulating throughout the company on Friday. “We did not sign up to develop weapons, and we demand a say in how our work is used.” The authors did not identify themselves. By late Friday, more than 100 employees had signed the letter.