Washington (AP) -The Pentagon said it has canceled a pending cloud computing contract with Microsoft. This could ultimately be worth $ 10 billion. Instead, we will pursue transactions with both Microsoft and Amazon, and perhaps with other cloud service providers.

“It has become clear that the long-deferred JEDI cloud contract no longer meets the requirements to fill the Pentagon’s capacity gap,” the Pentagon said in a statement Tuesday.

The statement did not directly mention that the Pentagon faced an extended legal challenge by Amazon against the first $ 1 million deal given to Microsoft. Amazon argued that Microsoft’s awards were contaminated by politics, especially hostility to then-President Donald Trump’s Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Jeff Bezos resigned as CEO of the company on Monday. Bezos owns the Washington Post, a newspaper often criticized by Trump.

Pentagon Chief Information Officer John Sherman told reporters Tuesday that the landscape has “evolved” with new possibilities for large-scale cloud computing services during a long court battle with Amazon. .. Therefore, he said, it was decided to start over and look for multiple vendors.

Sherman said JEDI will be replaced by a new program called Joint Warfighter Cloud Capability, and both Amazon and Microsoft are likely to be awarded part of their business, but neither is guaranteed. Sherman said three other large cloud service providers (Google, IBM and Oracle) may also be eligible.

In response to the Pentagon’s announcement, Microsoft said: “Understanding the Pentagon’s rationale and supporting the Pentagon and all military personnel in need of JEDI’s mission-critical 21st century technology. The Pentagon faces difficult choices. Whether to continue the fight for years of litigation or find another way. “

Amazon said it understood and agreed with the Pentagon’s decision. In a statement, the company reiterated that the 2019 contract award was not based on the benefits of competing proposals, but “due to external influences unrelated to government procurement.”

Oracle, which had previously searched for JEDI contacts but did not reach the final round, declined to comment on Tuesday. In another statement, IBM said it was appreciating the new Pentagon approach and Google was looking forward to discussing it with the Pentagon authorities.

The JEDI project began with a $ 1 million contract award to Microsoft. This is meant as the first step in a 10-year contract that could reach a value of $ 10 billion. The alternative project is a five-year program. Sherman said the exact contract amount has not been set, but will be “billions of dollars.” Sherman said the government will negotiate the amount Microsoft will pay to close the deal in 2019.

Amazon Web Services, a market leader in the provision of cloud computing services, has long been considered a leading candidate for implementing the Pentagon’s joint enterprise defense infrastructure project known as JEDI. The project aims to store and process vast amounts of classified data, allowing US troops to improve communication with soldiers on the battlefield and use artificial intelligence to speed up war planning and combat capabilities. I made it possible.

The JEDI contract was caught up in a legal challenge as soon as it was awarded to Microsoft in October 2019. The losing bidder, Amazon Web Services, appeared in court alleging unfairness, including flaws in the Pentagon process and improper political influence. ..

This year, the Pentagon said it was forced to reconsider its options in May after a federal judge rejected the Pentagon’s move to dismiss a significant part of Amazon’s proceedings in April. It hinted that it could be destroyed.

The JEDI story was unusual in the political dimension associated with Trump. In April 2020, the Pentagon Inspector General concluded that the contract process was in line with legal and government purchasing standards. The Inspector General found no evidence of White House interference in the contract awarding process, but the review also allows investigators to fully review the issue as the White House does not allow free access to witnesses. Said he couldn’t.

Five months later, the Pentagon reaffirmed Microsoft as the winner of the deal, but work remained stagnant due to Amazon’s legal challenge.

In the April 2020 report, the Inspector General’s office was Microsoft Corp, based in Redmond, Washington. Did not conclude whether was properly declared as a winner. Rather, we investigated whether the decision-making process was appropriate and legal. We also investigated allegations of unethical behavior by Pentagon officials involved in this issue and generally determined that ethical revocation would not affect the outcome.

The review found no evidence that the Pentagon was putting pressure on the White House to support Microsoft’s bid, but did clarify the full scope of the White House’s interaction with Pentagon decision makers. He also said he could not make a decision.

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Associated Press writers Matt O’Brien and Joseph Pisani contributed to this report.