The Pentagon said Microsoft had won the contract, which could span 10 years and be worth up to $10 billion, on October 25. It was originally due to be awarded last year, with several companies, including Amazon, bidding for the deal.
“Numerous aspects of the JEDI evaluation process contained clear deficiencies, errors, and unmistakable bias — and it’s important that these matters be examined and rectified,” Amazon told CNBC in an email.
In August, the Pentagon announced that US Secretary of Defence Mark Esper would review the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) deal after President Donald Trump said that he had received complaints from companies about the process. Trump said in July that companies conveyed that the specifications of the contract favored Amazon, according to Bloomberg.
“I never had something where more people are complaining,” Trump said last month at the White House. “Some of the greatest companies in the world are complaining about it,” he added, naming Microsoft, Oracle and IBM.
In announcing the decision to hand the contract to Microsoft last month, the Department of Defence said the acquisition process "was conducted in accordance with applicable laws and regulations." Microsoft, whose cloud business has been growing faster than Amazon's in recent quarters, said the decision reflected the fact that it brought its "best efforts to the rigorous JEDI evaluation process."