Judge temporarily halts Microsoft’s $10 billion Pentagon contract at Amazon’s request

The motion was granted as part of a suit Amazon brought protesting the Defense Department’s selection process for the contract.

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A federal judgegranted a motionfrom Amazon to halt Microsoft’s work on a $10 billion contract cloud contract with the Department of Defense. Amazon originallyfiled the motionin January as part of a suit alleging bias in the selection process for the contract. Amazon was among the companies competing to win the contract.

The Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) contract was awarded to Microsoftlast October. Amazonlater allegedbias on the part of President Donald Trump against Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos resulted in an unfair process. The Department of Defense claims that the selection was made without bias, with Defense Secretary Mark Esper stating the decision was made freely and fairly.

Amazon has asked for the Department of Defense to halt the contract with Microsoft and re-review submitted proposals. “All we’re trying to do through this protest and this request for a legal review is to ensure that a proper decision was made on behalf of U.S. taxpayers,” Amazon spokesperson Jay Carney told CNBC.

The JEDI contract provides cloud services, artificial intelligence processing, and machine learning technology. Amazon Web Services, Oracle, and IBM also competed for the contract.

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Dan Thorp-Lancaster is the former Editor-in-Chief of Windows Central. He began working with Windows Central, Android Central, and iMore as a news writer in 2014 and is obsessed with tech of all sorts. You can follow Dan on Twitter@DthorpLand Instagram@heyitsdtl.