SEATTLE, Wash. (AP) — Amazon and Microsoft are battling it out over a $10 billion opportunity to build the U.S. military its first “war cloud” computing system.
Formally called the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure plan, or JEDI, the military’s computing project would store and process vast amounts of classified data, allowing the Pentagon to use artificial intelligence to speed up its war planning and fighting capabilities.
The Defense Department hopes to award the winner-take-all contract as soon as August.
Amazon was considered an early front-runner for the project in part because of its existing high-security cloud contract with the CIA, but they now face a legal challenge and growing congressional concerns about alleged Pentagon favoritism.
The Pentagon has repeatedly defended its bidding process, though the concerns have trickled into Congress and onto prime-time TV.
Fox News host Tucker Carlson devoted a segment last month to the cloud contract that questioned an Amazon executive’s 2017 meeting with then-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis.