Google withdraws its bid for Pentagon's $10 billion cloud contract

By Harish Jonnalagadda
last updated

Google Campus Logo
Google Campus Logo (Image credit: Android Central)

The Pentagon is currently soliciting bids for a $10 billion cloud computing contract that will involve shifting vast troves of data from the Department of Defense to a commercial cloud. Google was one of the tech giants angling for the project, along with Amazon, Microsoft, IBM, and others, but today the company announced that it is withdrawing its bid.

Without going into details, Google said that the contract doesn't "align" with the company's AI principles. This isn't the first time Google pulled out of a government contract; earlier this year, the company ceased its role in the Pentagon's Project Maven AI drone project after continued backlash from its employees.

Shortly thereafter, Google published a set of AI principles that guide how the company uses its AI tools. In a statement to Bloomberg, a Google spokesman said:

We are not bidding on the JEDI contract because first, we couldn't be assured that it would align with our AI Principles. And second, we determined that there were portions of the contract that were out of scope with our current government certifications.

Google said that it would have competed for "portions" of the contract, but with the Pentagon seeking a single vendor, the company had no option but to withdraw its bid:

Had the JEDI contract been open to multiple vendors, we would have submitted a compelling solution for portions of it. Google Cloud believes that a multi-cloud approach is in the best interest of government agencies, because it allows them to choose the right cloud for the right workload.

Harish Jonnalagadda
Harish Jonnalagadda
Senior Editor - Asia

Harish Jonnalagadda is a Senior Editor overseeing Asia at Android Central. He leads the site's coverage of Chinese phone brands, contributing to reviews, features, and buying guides. He also writes about storage servers, audio products, and the semiconductor industry. Contact him on Twitter at @chunkynerd.

29 Comments
  • To late Google. We all know who you really are. Don't try to play Mr Good Guy with us now. With that being said RIP Google Plus.
  • funny 😂
  • Who are they really?
  • Only a few weeks ago we were being told that the tender had been written such that only amazon could comply with the terms. Much of the intelligence community thinks that the contract should be split into parts, and early this year after a court battle, a 950m contract awarded to amazon was "rewritten" and reduced to 65m dollars.
  • What a load of crap.
    You don't like war? Cool, no one does. Fact is, every country needs defense and there's nothing 'evil' about that. With that said, I'm glad Google is out. I trust them about as much as the gov't.
  • +1
  • But it is perfectly okay to work with Communist Chinese? Or expose user data for two weeks and keep it hidden?
  • The Chinese aren't communist.....
  • Yah, who told you that? Their president for life?
  • Their economic system probably is a good indicator
  • That's got nothing to do with being Communist.
  • The Google+ vulnerability was there for 3 years. That becoming public is most likely why they withdrew from the project. What company would turn down that much money for storing data?
  • Google, stop being driven by your ideology and your screeching employees. You are a publicly traded company not a political party. Also, I think it's rich that helping the government where you are based doesn't align with your principals.
  • "Doing the right thing?" Lol. You millennials have no clue what real sacrifice looks like. Your standard of living is precisely the result of alpha males and women who sacrificed everything to provide the modern conveniences you all enjoy today. For some reason, young people, including those running companies like Google want to decry the need for our military, abandon fossil fuels, and seek to rewrite our history in some sordid malaise of self-loathing, and all the while they benefit from the aforementioned. It's pathetic. What a bunch of pussiez
  • Bet you feel better for getting typing that.
  • Well, it certainly makes me feel better knowing not everyone in these comments is a giant vagina hat.
  • That's funny. Tell everyone the sacrifices you made? Tell us all what an "alpha" you are.
  • No worries, everyone will be getting off your lawn post haste.
  • Each generation's standard of living was built on the foundation of the generation before it. That's what we call progress. There was a time when running water in a home was a luxury. Steam used to be the preferred energy source, but now fossil fuels reign. That kingdom is being challenged by newer energy sources. Everything is built on what came before. If you had the choice between the first Android phone and one from this year, which would you choose?
  • Really? Have you ever been to Mali, Niger, Chad? You can't even get ice in Europe.
  • Save your nonsensical rants for Twitter
  • Lies!
  • What have the millennials brought to us?
  • Mental Health Days. Lol...
  • Always so much hate and counter hate in the forums
  • No one's hating anyone.
  • You seem to be hating everyone. Mad at everyone and everything no apparent reason.
  • They're just words, opinionated words. Not mad at anyone, definitely not everyone. I don't need to give you a reason.
  • The US government doesn't meet your principles but you haven't problem spending g vast resources on sensorship for the Chinese government?