In the dispute over the awarding of a billionaire contract by the US Department of Defense, the US technology giant Amazon President Donald Trump alleged abuse of office. The award of up to $ 10 billion contract to the Amazon competitors Microsoft was the "result of undue pressure" by Trump, who wanted to harm his "political enemy", Amazon boss Jeff Bezos, according to court documents (PDF ), which were released on Monday.
The technology company had filed a complaint in November in a US court and called for "unmistakable bias" a new procurement procedure and a new decision of the Pentagon. "The question is whether the President of the United States should be allowed to use the Defense Department's budget to pursue his own personal and political goals," criticized Amazon.
A Pentagon spokeswoman rejected the allegations. There was "no external influence" during the tendering process, she told AFP.
Artificial intelligence for the military
The Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (Jedi) project aims to build a cloud computing system that uses artificial intelligence to facilitate the exchange of information among all military departments. One of the goals is to give soldiers access to important data even in the field.
The awarding of the contract to Microsoft at the end of October had been a surprise, since Amazon was considered a favorite until recently. Ultimately, only the Amazon and Microsoft had applied for the ten-year cloud computing major order of the Pentagon. Competitor Google had withdrawn at the end of last year, with reference to ethical concerns from the race.
US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper had dismissed Amazon's criticism as unfounded. The award of the contract to Microsoft was "free, fair" and "without external influence," said Esper.
Amazon owner Jeff Bezos is regularly a target of attacks by the US president. In addition to his work at Amazon Bezos is also the owner of the newspaper "Washington Post", which often reports critically about Donald Trump.
