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SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2020
9
Business
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon
on Friday reaf irmed Microsoft
as winner of a cloud computing
contract potentially worth USD10
billion, although the start of work is
delayed by a legal battle over rival
Amazon’s claim that the bidding
process was lawed.
“Thedepartment has completed
its comprehensive re-evaluation
of the JEDI cloud proposals and
determined
that
Microsoft’s
proposal continues to represent
the best value to the government,”
the Pentagon said.
The Pentagon had requested
time to review how it evaluated
certain technical aspects of the bids
after the judgewho is presidingover
Amazon’s bid protest in the United
States (US) Court of Federal Claims
issued a preliminary injunction on
February 13. The judge said that
Amazon’s challenge likely had merit
in some respects.
The contract was awarded to
Microsoft last October, prompting
Amazon to cry foul.
Amazon Web Services, a market
leader in providing cloud computing
services, had long been considered
a leading candidate to run the
Pentagon’s Joint Enterprise Defense
Infrastructure (JEDI) project.
The project will store and
process vast amounts of classi ied
data, allowing the US military
to
improve
communications
with soldiers on the battle ield
and use arti icial intelligence to
speed up its war planning and
ighting capabilities.
In a statement on Friday, Amazon
said thePentagon’s further reviewwas
not based on the relative strengths of
the two companies’ bids.
“That is exactly where we
ind ourselves today, with the
Department of Defense’s (DoD)
re-evaluation nothing more than
an attempt to validate a lawed,
biased, and politically corrupted
decision,” Amazon said.
Amazon has asserted that the
bidding was improperly in luenced
by US President Donald Trump’s
dislike of Amazon and its Chief
Executive Of icer, Jeff Bezos. Bezos
owns
The Washington Post
, a news
outlet often criticised by Trump.
In its statement on Friday,
Amazon
said
its
concerns
about political corruption have
only grown.
Pentagon reaffirms Microsoft as winner of
disputed JEDI deal
“We strongly disagree with
the DoD’s lawed evaluation and
believe it’s critical for our country
that the government and its elected
leaders administer procurements
objectively and in a manner that is
free from political in luence,” it said.
“The question we continue to ask
ourselves is whether the president
of the United States should be
allowed to use the budget of
the Department of Defense to
pursue his own personal and
political ends?”
In
April,
a
government
watchdog concluded that the
contracting process was in line with
legal and government purchasing
standards. The DoD inspector
general found no evidence of White
House interference in the contract
award process.
But the report said investigators
could not fully review that aspect
of the matter because the White
House would not allow unfettered
access to witnesses.
File photo shows aerial view of the Pentagon in Washington. PHOTO: AP
TOKYO (AP) — Nissan said it has
developed a new way to produce
high-tech auto parts that highlights
the Japanese automaker’s engi-
neering inesse, even as it faces a
criminal trial in an ongoing scan-
dal involving former Chairman
Carlos Ghosn.
Nissan Motor Co said it has
achieved a “breakthrough” in mold-
ing carbon ibre reinforced plastic,
or CFRP, components, now used
in racing cars and jets because of
their light weight and strength.
All of the world’s top automak-
ers are working to boost CFRP use.
The hurdles have been cost, which
is often about 10 times that of steel,
and the long time it takes to mold
the parts.
Executive
Vice
President
Hideyuki Sakamoto said the CFRP
parts will be used in mass-pro-
duced sport-utility vehicles in four
or ive years, thanks to a new cast-
ing procedure for the poured resin.
The cost savings come from
shortening the production time
from about three or four hours to
just two minutes, Sakamoto said. A
vehicle rolls off a Nissan assembly
line every two minutes.
Vehicle weight is crucial in mak-
ing models ecological when emis-
sions standards are growing tighter
around the world, he said.
Nissan’s efforts are important
because much of the cost of a car
comes from its production, not
raw materials, said Junya Inoue,
associate professor at the Institute
of Industrial Science at the Univer-
sity of Tokyo.
But automakers have struggled
with the cost and shaping of CFRP
parts, as well as with creating a re-
cycling system for them, which is
Scandal-tarnished Nissan shows
off production innovation
more challenging than with metals,
Inoue said on Friday.
“Production innovation tends to
remain hidden,” he said.
“But Nissan boasts great engi-
neering technology.”
Nissan’s troubles aren’t over, as
its bottom line has been slammed
by the coronavirus pandemic.
Global credit rating agency
DBRS Morning Star said this week
that Nissan’s lineup is ageing, its
new models tend to be in pas-
senger cars where pro it margins
are low, and sales are suffering in
the key North American market. It
downgraded Nissan to “negative,”
following downgrades last year and
earlier this year.
Nissan also faces inancial
misconduct charges related to
under-reporting Ghosn’s compen-
sation, in a Tokyo trial that opens
September 15.
Greg Kelly, an American former
senior executive, is also on trial.
Nissan has acknowledged guilt,
while Kelly says he is innocent.
In brighter news, Nissan is plan-
ning to unveil a new version of its
lagship Z sports car at about the
same time.
An employee works at the Nissan Technical Centre in Atsugi, near Tokyo.
PHOTO: AP
SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) – United
States (US) regulators estimated
on Friday that it could cost small
telecoms irms more than USD1.8
billion to remove and replace
Huawei and ZTE gear lagged
over security concerns.
The Federal Communications
Commission (FCC) has classi ied
the Chinese tech giants as
national security threats and
carriers are barred from using
the Universal Service Fund to buy
their equipment.
An FCC assessment of how
much networks supported by the
federal fund rely on hardware and
services from Huawei and ZTE
estimated that a purge could cost
USD1.84 billion in total.
“I once again strongly
urge Congress to appropriate
funding to reimburse carriers
for replacing any equipment
or services determined to be a
national security threat so that
we can protect our networks and
the myriad parts of our economy
and society that rely upon them,”
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said in
a statement.
Huawei is one of the few
companies capable of building
5G networks and is widely viewed
as providing the most advanced
option for the super-fast data
transfers behind technologies
such as self-driving cars.
Verizon, which was among
the examples listed in the FCC
assessment, is spending USD1.9
billion to speed up its deployment
5G telecom services as a top
bidder for licences to valuable
spectrum useful for 5G.
Mid-bandwidthmadeavailable
by the FCC strikes a balance
between how far signals reach
and how fast data travels, with
low-bandwidth sacri icing speed
for distance and high-bandwidth
quick but short-ranged.
USD1.8B needed to replace
Huawei, ZTE parts says US
A man walks past the booth of Huawei during the Internationale
Funkausstellung IFA international trade show for consumer electronics
and home appliances in Berlin. PHOTO: AP