10.27.2019
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THE SKINNY
When You Come Out on Top … Microsoft just landed a $10 billion contract with the U.S. Pentagon for its cloud business called Azure.
What For? The project is called the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure aka JEDI. The project’s focused on getting the U.S. military better at war on account of being able to “store and process mass amounts of classified data” and artificial intelligence.
When You’re Not Happy About It … The contract has been pretty controversial in the tech world. Earlier on in the bidding process, rumor had it that Amazon would take the ‘W’ on this one. Other tech companies like IBM and Oracle didn’t think it was a fair process. Oracle even took it up in federal court and took the ‘L’ on that challenge.
When There’s More To It … Oracle and IBM were both ruled out from the process. Google backed out on account of AI ethics concerns. And as for Amazon … well, unfair competition allegations and being generally disliked by the U.S. President probably didn’t help.
What’s Next … Amazon said it was surprised at the decision but no word yet on whether it’ll appeal the procurement decision.
WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON?
When You Want to Stay Ahead of the Curve … China’s government is doubling down on blockchain technology. President Xi Jinping said he wants to “keep our country at the very forefront” of blockchain technology. China’s said it’s almost there in issuing a digital currency.
THE STREETS ARE TALKING …
U.S. food delivery company GrubHub seems to be underperforming on account of increased competition from UberEats and DoorDash. The company’s value is down.
E-Scooter company Lime’s giving freelancers a ‘lucrative’ opportunity to re-fuel their scooters and gather up scooters left on city streets. “Freelance juicers” are making up to $50 per hour.
Facebook News is coming … this Friday. Newspapers can be happy because the social network “will start paying for their work.”
Google’s parent company Alphabet has put in a bid to buy FitBit.
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