According to Bloomberg, the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure cloud, or JEDI, involves transitioning massive amounts of Defense Department data to a commercially operated cloud system.

Companies are due to submit bids for the contract, which could last as long as 10 years, on October 12th. Google's announcement on came just months after the company decided not to renew its contract with a Pentagon artificial intelligence program, after extensive protests from employees of the internet giant about working with the military. The company then released a set of principles designed to evaluate what kind of artificial intelligence projects it would pursue.

A SpokesGoogle 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."

The spokesman added that Google is "working to support the US government with our cloud in many ways".

The spokesGoogle added: "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."