Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos Wants Amazon To Partner More With Pentagon

Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com Inc. founder has reiterated that the firm will support the U.S. Department of Defense as technology companies compete for more defense contracts and the pentagon looks for ways in which it can modernize itself. At the annual defense forum held at the Regan Library in Simi Valley, California, Bezos said, " we are going to support the Department of Defense, this country is important."

Several critics have at some point in time also raised a voice in support of Jeff Bezos on the idea of tech companies not wanting to partner with the Pentagon; and have also criticized Silicon Valley which the U.S. Department of Defense has been wooing since it began looking for a technological leg up over China and Russia.  In June, General Dynamics Chief Executive Officer, Phebe Novakovic said, “I’m frankly alarmed when I see some companies to whom much is given not want to work with the U.S. government. Who do they think provides them this freedom? Where do they think the platform for their technology and innovation comes from the security and stability of this nation. So, I find as an American, that troubling.”

A lot of tech companies have experienced some kind of difficulty working with the Pentagon in the time past. An example is the defense program, called Project Maven, which  took place last year. The project set a revolt as some employees opposed Google technology being used in warfare. The employees noted that it clashed with Google's stated goal of doing no harm and cited the risks associated with using artificial intelligence technology in circumstances that perhaps may be lethal.

Furthermore, Bezos said he supported the view where employees would have views that are passionately held, he said it was up to the senior executives of a company to make choices and lead on what projects to take up or not to take up. Jeff Bezos said, "my view is that if big tech is turning their back on the Department of Defense, this country is in big trouble".

Amazon recently launched its cloud computing which involves the on-demand delivery of IT resources over the Internet with pay-as-you-go pricing; instead of buying, owning, and maintaining physical data centers and servers, access to technology services, such as computing power, storage, and databases are provided.

Amazon had competed to provide cloud computing  capabilities to the Pentagon, however it filed a lawsuit in federal court contesting the Department of Defense choice in September to award the cloud computing contract which was worth more than $10 billion to rival Microsoft Corp. According to Reuters, Amazon was considered a favorite for the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure Cloud (JEDI) contract, which was a part of a broader digital modernization project at the Pentagon, before Microsoft surprisingly emerged as  the winner.

Amazon previously hinted that they were sidelined in the contract award due to political reasons because the Chief Executive Officer, Jeff Bezos has always being a strong critic of United States President, Donald Trump.

Investing Port reported last week that Amazon.com was part of the top performing tech stocks for the year 2019; and expect more excellent performance in the coming year.