AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.
- Amazon filed a lawsuit on Monday to block Microsoft from starting work on the $10 billion Pentagon Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) contract.
- Microsoft won the contract in October, but Amazon claims it was unfairly excluded from winning the JEDI contract due to political interference from President Trump. Trump has been critical of Amazon and its CEO Jeff Bezos.
- The retail giant already filed a lawsuit challenging the Pentagon's decision process in October, and this new lawsuit if successful would prevent Microsoft from starting work until the first suit is resolved.
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Amazon is taking legal action to stop Microsoft from starting work on a $10 billion Pentagon contract Amazon claims it was unfairly blocked from winning.
Microsoft was awarded the $10 billion Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) contract in October last year, which involves moving the Department of Defense's data over onto the cloud.
Previously Amazon had been tipped as the frontrunner to win the contract, and the company maintains that it lost out due to interference from President Trump, who has a longstanding animosity towards Amazon and its CEO Jeff Bezos whom he gleefully dubbed "Jeff Bozo" when news of Bezos' divorce broke last year.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella on Monday attributed the company's win to its so-called "hybrid cloud," a.k.a. mixing pure cloud computing with on-site computing.
Amazon filed its first legal complaint disputing the decision in November, claiming it had been the victim of "clear deficiencies, errors, and unmistakable bias."
This new legal challenge, filed in a federal court on Monday, is designed to block Microsoft from performing any substantial work on JEDI until Amazon's first lawsuit is resolved.
Microsoft will move to dismiss the case, according to Bloomberg.
The judge has been asked by the companies to rule on Amazon's newest filing by February 11. Neither Amazon nor Microsoft were immediately available for comment when contacted by Business Insider.
