Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said it would support the US Department of Defense as technology companies vie for more defense contracts and the Pentagon seeks to modernize itself.
“We are going to support the Department of Defense, this country is important,” Bezos said at an annual defense forum at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, California.
While Bezos said he supported employees having passionately held views, he said it was up to the senior leaders of companies to provide guidance on what projects they would and would not do. “My view is that if big tech is turning their back on the Department of Defense, this country is in big trouble,” Bezos said.
Amazon had competed to provide cloud computing capabilities to the Pentagon.
But last month the company filed a lawsuit in federal court contesting the Defense Department’s September decision to award a cloud computing contract worth up to $10 billion to rival bidder Microsoft Corp.