According to The Wall Street Journal, Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) has approached Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL), and Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) for assistance in lobbying the American government and expanding its contracts in order to challenge Amazon’s (NASDAQ:AMZN) market domination.
The news organization reported that Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) had distributed talking points to the other corporations, citing people familiar with the initiative and a document it has seen. The Journal reported that Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) has contacted VMware (NYSE:VMW), Dell Technologies (NYSE:DELL), IBM (NYSE:IBM), and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) in addition to Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and Oracle (NYSE:ORCL).
Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), according to the news, has not requested Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) to join the partnership.
Microsoft and Amazon’s Answer to Seeking Alpha
Seeking Alpha contacted Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Google (NASDAQ:GOOG), Oracle (NYSE:ORCL), and Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), but none of them responded right away.
The announcement follows good quarterly profits from Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Google parent firm Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL), which were assisted by their cloud computing divisions.
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) reported that Azure gained 40% year over year or 46% in constant currency during the most recent quarter.
According to Google CFO Ruth Porat, the cloud presents an “amazing opportunity” for the corporation, and some analysts anticipate continued growth rate of more than 30%.
According to Synergy Research Group, Amazon’s (NASDAQ:AMZN) Amazon Web Services division continues to be the market leader, controlling close to 33% of the rapidly expanding cloud infrastructure market.
AWS has 47% of the public cloud computing market share in the United States and Canada, compared to Microsoft’s 28%, according to research firm Gartner (NASDAQ:MSFT).
Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) was chosen by the National Security Agency in 2021 as the only vendor for a cloud contract that could be worth $10B over the following ten years.
The Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability, or JWCC, contract announcement was postponed by the Pentagon from March to December. Companies including Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), Google (NASDAQ:GOOG), and Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) are vying for the lucrative cloud computing deal, which could be valued up to $10B over five years (NYSE:ORCL).
After Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) alleged in court documents that former President Donald Trump “screwed” it out of the contract, a judge decided to dismiss Amazon’s (NASDAQ:AMZN) objections to Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) receiving the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure, or JEDI, contract in April 2021.
Just a few months after it was claimed that Trump requested former Defense Secretary Mark Esper to delay the contract due to claims that it benefited Amazon, the lucrative contract was granted to Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) in October 2019. (NASDAQ:AMZN).
The agreement between Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and the Pentagon was suspended in July 2021 due to the cancellation of the JEDI contract and the replacement of it with the JWCC.
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) introduced Microsoft Cloud for Sovereignty earlier this month. This new public cloud would enable governments all around the world to have more control over data and “enhanced transparency.”
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