Amazon, Microsoft wage war over the Pentagon’s ‘war cloud’

Amazon and Microsoft are battling for a $10 billion opportunity to build the U.S. military its first “war cloud.”

The Pentagon is preparing to award a contract for a computing project that will store and process vast amounts of classified data and enable the military to speed up its use of artificial intelligence.

Amazon was once considered a shoo-in for the deal, but conflict-of-interest allegations made by rival Oracle have threatened its bid.

Oracle and IBM were eliminated at an earlier round of the contract competition, but Oracle’s ongoing legal challenge alleges the process was rigged in Amazon’s favor. A hearing on that case is set for Wednesday.

The Pentagon has defended its process and says it wants to award the contract soon to maintain U.S. technological advantage over adversaries.