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Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos says he will make deals with US military despite outside pressure
Jeff Bezos speaks onstage at WIRED25 Summit conference on Monday in San Francisco. Bezos said that he would not be pressured into not making deals with the U.S. military. (Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for WIRED25 )

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos says he will make deals with US military despite outside pressure

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has said that external criticism will not stop his company from making deals with the U.S. military. He also said he disagreed with Google's decision to back out of a contract with the Pentagon after facing pressure.

What's the history?

In June, Google cancelled a lucrative contract with the Pentagon after its employees protested the company's involvement in what they called the "business of war." Last week, Google announced that it would not try to win a cloud computing contract with the Pentagon.

Bezos was asked about Google's decision on Monday during a conference hosted by Wired, and about whether or not his company would follow suit. He said that he disagreed with the approach that Google had taken, and said “it doesn't make any sense to me.”

Amazon is currently trying to win a $10 billion Department of Defense contract.

He also said that he thought companies shouldn't cave in to pressure when it came to situations like this.

“One of the jobs of the senior leadership team is to make the right decision, even when it's unpopular,” he said. "If big U.S. tech companies turn their backs on the Department of Defense, this country is in trouble."

What else did Bezos say?

Bezos, who also owns The Washington Post, has run afoul of President Donald Trump before. While he did not directly address this, he did say that a desire to defend the United States should supercede any political division.

I like this country. I know everyone is very conflicted about the current politics of this country — this country is a gem. It is amazing. It's still the best place in the world. It's the place where people want to come. There aren't other countries where everybody's trying to get in. I'd let 'em in if it were up to me. I like 'em, I want all of 'em in. But this is a great country and it does need to be defended.

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