Index Option Calls
  • Home
  • Latest News
  • Email Whitelisting
  • Privacy Policy
  • Home
  • Latest News
  • Email Whitelisting
  • Privacy Policy
No Result
View All Result
Index Option Calls
No Result
View All Result
Home Latest News

Google’s pursuit of military cloud deal was among top issues at last week’s all-staff meeting

by
November 15, 2021
in Latest News
0
0
SHARES
0
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

RELATED POSTS

Wall Street pros reveal their top defense stocks — and the same names keep coming up

Fears grow for untold numbers buried by Turkey earthquake

Thomas Kurian, chief executive officer of cloud services at Google LLC, speaks during the Google Cloud Next ’19 event in San Francisco, California, U.S., on Tuesday, April 9, 2019. The conference brings together industry experts to discuss the future of cloud computing.

Michael Short | Bloomberg | Getty Images

At Google’s weekly all-hands meeting on Thursday afternoon, CEO Sundar Pichai and cloud boss Thomas Kurian tried to address concerns about the company’s potential pursuit of a multibillion-dollar cloud deal with the Defense Department.

A question about Google’s involvement with the government’s Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability (JWCC) program received so many votes by employees in an internal system called Dory that it was brought up to executives at the meeting.

Pichai read aloud the question, which referenced a New York Times report from earlier this month. That story said Google is actively pursuing JWCC, after the Pentagon canceled a prior deal, the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) contract, in July. The question received almost 1,000 employee votes.

CNBC obtained audio of the event, known as TGIF, and viewed a screenshot of the question.

“The NYT reports that Google is aggressively pursuing the DoD’s Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability despite not bidding on its predecessor (JEDI) because it doesn’t align with its AI principles (no work on weapons or technologies that cause harm),” Pichai said, reading from the question on Dory. “What changed? What is the bid about and why is it ok?”

Kurian responded by attempting to differentiate the contract from JEDI, a $10 billion deal that produced a legal battle between Amazon and Microsoft before the government canceled the contract altogether.

“Recently, there’s been some discussion regarding Google’s interest in participating in the framework,” said Kurian, who joined Google in 2018 following a lengthy career at Oracle.

“If selected as one of the compliant vendors, we are proud to work with the DoD to help modernize their operations,” Kurian said, appearing to read from a script. “There will be many areas where our product capabilities and our engineering expertise can be brought to bear with no conflict to Google’s AI principles.”

Google established its AI principles after declining to renew a government contract called Project Maven, which helped the government analyze and interpret drone videos using artificial intelligence. Prior to ending the deal, several thousand employees signed a petition and dozens resigned in opposition to Google’s involvement.

Google dropped out of the bidding for the JEDI contract in part because Kurian “couldn’t be sure” it would align with the company’s AI principles, he said at the time.

Kurian on Thursday described how the DoD is the largest employer in the world with nearly 3 million employees. He said the JWCC is designed as a “procurement framework” for the 28 main agencies within the DoD. He also highlighted other work Google does for the U.S. government, such as helping agencies with weather predictions, working with the military to detect cancer and helping the Air Force with aircraft maintenance.

Pichai and Kurian are navigating a sensitive issue for Google, as the company tries to bolster its cloud-computing division with high-profile deals while also placating an increasingly vocal and politically charged employee base. While Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page are still major shareholders in parent company Alphabet, they retired from their executive positions in 2019, leading to a dramatic cultural shift for a company that was once known for its idealism.

Kurian isn’t expecting all of his staffers to get behind him on the JWCC.

“We understand that not every Googler will agree with this decision,” Kurian said. “But we believe Google Cloud should seek to serve the government where it is capable of doing so and where the work meets Google’s principles and our company’s values.”

Google went into greater detail on the topic in a blog post that Kurian published Thursday evening. In the post, Kurian described the JWCC as “essential to the success of the Department and the government in reducing costs, driving innovation, increasing productivity, and enhancing cybersecurity.” He added that the DoD should solicit assistance from numerous vendors, including Google Cloud.

Kurian underscored that point at the meeting, telling employees that multiple vendors will be in on the deal, potentially giving each the option to choose where they want to focus.

“That means no single vendor has to do all the work contemplated under the framework,” he said.

Kurian said Google hasn’t put in a bid yet, and doesn’t know all the details because the request for proposal hasn’t been sent by the government. He didn’t address one specific detail from the Times story, which said Google’s cloud unit has already made the work a priority declaring it a “Code Yellow,” which allows the company to pull engineers onto the military project.

A Google spokesperson told CNBC in an email that a “multi-cloud strategy” is the best solution for the government and said the company will evaluate “future bid opportunities” with its public sector customers, including the DoD.

Pichai chimed in at Thursday’s meeting to tell employees that he hoped the discussion helped clarify the company’s position.

“I think we are strongly committed to working with the government in a way that’s consistent with our AI principles,” he said.

WATCH: Google and C3 AI team up to grow AI in the cloud

ShareTweetPin

Related Posts

Wall Street pros reveal their top defense stocks — and the same names keep coming up

by
February 8, 2023
0

The war in Ukraine -- now nearing its one-year anniversary -- and the shooting down of an alleged Chinese surveillance...

Fears grow for untold numbers buried by Turkey earthquake

by
February 8, 2023
0

Mesut Hancer holds the hand of his 15-year-old daughter Irmak, who died in the earthquake in Kahramanmaras, close to the...

Goldman Sachs strategist reveals the ‘cheap’ sectors to own right now

by
February 8, 2023
0

Bank stocks are "inexpensive," and commodity companies look "cheap" in this high interest-rate environment, according to Goldman Sachs' Sharon Bell....

Why Biden’s 4% buyback tax could boost stock prices and dividends

by
February 8, 2023
0

The Biden administration’s new stock buyback tax will have little impact on the overall stock market. It might even actually...

Facebook co-founder funds research into cooling the Earth with sunlight reflection

by
February 8, 2023
0

This photograph taken on May 11, 2022 shows Shivaram, a villager walking through the cracked bottom of a dried-out pond...

Next Post

Jeff Bezos says he spends more on climate than space travel and recounts the time he played an alien

October retail sales are expected to be strong, showing economy is back on track

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

email

Get the daily email about stock.

Please Enter Your Email Address:

By opting in you agree to our Privacy Policy. You also agree to receive emails from us and our affiliates. Remember that you can opt-out any time, we hate spam too!

MOST VIEWED

  • A Couple Stored IRA Gold at Home. They Owe the IRS More Than $300,000.

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • A California Couple Spent Eight Years Building Their Dream Retirement Home in Costa Rica

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Goldman Sachs says buy these stocks to play Web 3.0 and the metaverse

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Goldman Sachs picks new stocks to buy — and says these 5 have over 100% upside

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • In his final warning, this stock trading wizard — who made big money in bear markets and crashes — called this market a bubble like no other

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Home
  • Latest News
  • Email Whitelisting
  • Privacy Policy
All rights reserved by www.indexoptioncalls.com
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Latest News
  • Email Whitelisting
  • Privacy Policy

All rights reserved by www.indexoptioncalls.com