The $10 billion JEDI race narrows down to Microsoft and Amazon

Microsoft and Amazon are engaged in a heated battle to win a $10 billion service contract from the Pentagon and appear to have beaten out rivals Oracle, IBM and more, being the only two companies to meet the minimum requirement.

“After evaluating all of the proposals received, the Department of Defense has made a competitive range determination for the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure Cloud request for proposals, in accordance with all applicable laws and regulations,” said Elissa Smith, spokeswoman at DoD, in a statement to MeriTalk.

The decision is expected to arrive in early July at the soonest after being delayed by accusations that an Amazon employee who temporarily worked for the DOD as a contractor wrote the spec specifically to fit AWS only.

Smith confirmed the employee has been referred to the department’s inspector general due to this.

Microsoft has been involved in a number of other high profile military contracts, including the $480 million IVAS HoloLens 2 contract  , a $1.76 billion Defense Department contract, and the $8 billion DEOS contract. 

Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella had earlier come down strongly in favour of supplying technology to the military, saying they were ultimately a force for good and that it was Microsoft’s patriotic duty, with Microsoft’s President Brad Smith confirming Microsoft is “going to provide the U.S. military with access to the best technology … all the technology we create. Full stop.”