Amazon says ‘bias’ in Pentagon awarding USD10 bn contract to Microsoft

Amazon has challenged the awarding of a USD 10 billion Pentagon cloud computing contract to Microsoft, alleging “unmistakable bias” in the process.

The 10-year contract for the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure program, better known as JEDI, ultimately will see all military branches sharing information in a system boosted by artificial intelligence.

“It’s critical for our country that the government and its elected leaders administer procurements objectively and in a manner that is free from political influence,” a spokesperson for Amazon Web Services said on Thursday.

“Numerous aspects of the JEDI evaluation process contained clear deficiencies, errors, and unmistakable bias.” Amazon said it filed a notice in US court last week signaling its intent to protest the handling of the bidding process.