Microsoft execs defend bid for US military contract

Despite employee objections, Microsoft executives stand firm on bidding for US military contracts, says a report in The Wall Street Journal.

On Thursday, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and President and Chief Legal Officer Brad Smith told employees that a huge Defense Department project called "JEDI" is the "fate of the thing" Microsoft is committed to working on, according to a Friday story in the Journal. Some Microsoft employees had opposed bidding on JEDI.

Earlier this month, Project Maven and the possibility that the project may be used for the purpose of the project.

JEDI, aka the Joint Cloud Enterprise Defense Infrastructure, is taking a massive step up in cloud computing. The contract could be worth as much as $ 10 trillion.

"We want the people of this country and especially the people who have made this back to us," Smith wrote in a blog post published Friday. "They will have access to the best technology that we create."

Smith says that they want to work on a different project, they can try to transfer. He also made it clear that Microsoft will not be shy of the potential of ethical issues.

"It's important for people across the country to recognize that ethical issues are not new to the military," Smith wrote. Aim "to withdraw from this market is to reduce our chances of engagement in the public debate about how we can not be used in the future."