Pentagon Pauses $10 Billion Contract That Embroiled Amazon In Controversy

The Pentagon is hitting pause on a massive, first-of-its-kind cloud computing contract after President Trump cited critics' accusations of favoritism toward Amazon.

Mark Esper, the new defense secretary, is re-examining the project just weeks before the winner was expected to be announced. Amazon and Microsoft are the finalists for the contract, which is worth as much as $10 billion and will be as long as 10 years. The project is called JEDI, for Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure.

"No decision will be made on the program until he has completed his examination," Department of Defense spokeswoman Elissa Smith said on Thursday.