A challenge to the Defense Department’s award became likely after President Donald Trump publicly derided Amazon’s bid for the high-stakes contract. Trump has repeatedly taken swipes at Amazon and its founder Jeff Bezos, who owns the Washington Post, which has a nasty habit of reporting news stories which fail to endorse the president as the Messiah.

For over a year, the acrimonious contract-award process for the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) contract, set off a showdown among Amazon, Microsoft , Oracle and IBM and involved conflict of interest allegations, legal challenges and intense lobbying.

In a statement, Amazon Web Services said it was “surprised about this conclusion”.

Amazon could go to the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) - a legislative branch of the government that offers auditing services, which could offer an immediate stay or it could take the case to the US Court of Federal Claims, which could allow it to strengthen its case through discovery.

Amazon has three calendar days to request a debriefing: a process in which the government explains to Amazon why it was unsuccessful and share details on the evaluation process, said Michael Hordell, an attorney who works with Barnes and Thornburg LLP.