The U.S. Department of Defense announced today that it’s reviewing its process for the awarding of the $10 billion Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure cloud computing contract after President Donald Trump raised concerns about the exclusion of some companies from the bidding process.

Years in the making, the $10 billion contract, which includes unified cloud infrastructure, intelligence sharing and the use of artificial intelligence software, had been shortlisted to Amazon Web Services Inc. and Microsoft Corp. with AWS favored to win the contract. President Trump’s interest in the project came after he was made aware of letters written by several Republican members of Congress and military leaders expressing concern over some companies allegedly being frozen out of the tendering process, specifically Oracle Corp.

The review will be led by Defense Secretary Dr. Mark Esper (pictured). “Secretary Esper is committed to ensuring our warfighters have the best capabilities, including Artificial Intelligence, to remain the most lethal force in the world, while safeguarding taxpayer dollars,” a Pentagon spokesperson said in a statement. “Keeping his promise to Members of Congress and the American public, Secretary Esper is looking at the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) program. No decision will be made on the program until he has completed his examination.”

Although Trump’s interest may be recent, controversy over the JEDI contract goes back several years, including allegations by rival bidders that the competition unfairly favored Amazon because of perceived conflicts of interest. Another argument put forward is that the Pentagon’s decision to choose only one company for the contract raised competition and security concerns.

News of the review was received positively by critics of the current JEDI process. Senator Marco Rubio, who has been vocal against the current process, took to Twitter to welcome the review, saying that “we must make sure it is a fair process and delivers what [the Department of Defense] needs.”

After my letter & conversation with @POTUS three weeks ago I am pleased @EsperDoD is taking immediate action to review the JEDI Cloud contract.

We must make sure it is a fair process & delivers what @DeptofDefense needs. pic.twitter.com/oNi80c5np3

— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) August 1, 2019

Opposition to the JEDI tendering process is not uniform on the right, however. The Heritage Foundation, a Washington D.C.-based conservative think tank, called July 25 for the current process to be left unhindered, saying that “the competition has been constructed fairly and appropriately.”

Whether the review is about a fair process or a particular dislike of Amazon is open to speculation, Trump having a well-known personal dislike of Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos.

Some have accused Oracle of being behind the Congressional opposition to the current process. CNN reported that Oracle employees and lobbyists allegedly distributed a document to lawmakers that included a flowchart titled “A Conspiracy to Create a Ten Year DoD Cloud Monopoly.”

Oracle has previously filed two lawsuits related to the JEDI process, one against the U.S. Government Accountability Office and the other against the Department of Defense. Both were subsequently dismissed.

SiliconANGLE has asked AWS for comment on the latest move and will update this post if the company responds.

Photo: chiefngb/Flickr