SEATTLE — Amazon says President Donald Trump's “improper pressure" and behind-the-scenes attacks harmed its chances of winning a $10 billion Pentagon military contract.
The Pentagon awarded the cloud computing contract to Microsoft in October.
Amazon argues in a lawsuit unsealed Monday the decision should be revisited because of “substantial and pervasive errors" and Trump's interference.
Before Microsoft was awarded the contract, Amazon was believed to be the front-runner. Amazon Web Services is ahead of Microsoft in cloud computing, and Amazon has experience handling highly classified government data. In November, Microsoft was in the final stages of obtaining the accreditation needed to handle the sensitive classified data - something Amazon already achieved.
The Pentagon was preparing to make its decision when President Trump said he heard complaints about the process and his administration would "take a very long look." He said other companies told him that the contract "wasn't competitively bid." Oracle, in particular, had argued that Pentagon officials unfairly favored Amazon for the winner-take-all contract.
The project is known as Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure.
The JEDI system will store and process vast amounts of classified data, allowing the U.S. military to use artificial intelligence to speed up its war planning and fighting capabilities.
A cloud strategy document unveiled by the Defense Department last year called for replacing the military's "disjointed and stove-piped information systems" with a commercial cloud service "that will empower the warfighter with data and is critical to maintaining our military's technological advantage."