Amazon Web Services Inks $1 Billion Deal with US Government for Cloud Services

GSA, AWS ink $1 B credit pact to fuel govt cloud migrations

What, you don't expect them to keep using Microsoft with its Chinese cloud admins, do you? The US government is about to get more AWS in more places thanks to a new $1 billion deal between Uncle Sam and Amazon. The US General Services Administration shared news Thursday of an agreement with AWS to provide federal agencies with credits, available through December 31, 2028, that they can use for cloud adoption, training and other things the government needs to do to "move from aging on-premises infrastructure to the cloud," according to the GSA. "Through this new agreement with AWS, federal agencies will be able to enhance delivery of critical services, leverage cloud and advanced AI technologies, and dramatically reduce costs," acting GSA administrator Michael Rigas said of the announcement. The AWS agreement announced on Thursday is the latest deal under the OneGov purchasing strategy, the GSA announced in April. OneGov aims to eventually reshape how government agencies buy all their goods and services, with the first phase of the program focusing on IT products - like cloud platforms provided by AWS. OneGov, the GSA said in April, largely operates under the philosophy of eliminating isolated purchases in favor of large, government-wide agreements for goods and services with standardized terms and pricing. Eliminating the need to negotiate terms for each purchase means a lot less government time and money spent on acquisitions. The GSA has announced a number of OneGov contracts since April, including a deal signed last month to deeply discount Oracle tech for government buyers and provide $1 access to ChatGPT Enterprise for agencies. Like this deal, the Oracle and OpenAI OneGov agreements open acquisitions up to the whole of the federal government. As with those other agreements, the AWS OneGov matter sees the Amazon cloud arm opening its services to whichever federal government customers come calling, but, in this case, by using "incentive credits" that will be "aggregated across Federal civilian agencies," according to the GSA. Agencies that acquire incentive credits through the GSA can use them to purchase things like AWS cloud services, infrastructure and application modernization services, migration assistance, and training credits. The deal also allows for "streamlined engagement" between AWS and federal agencies "with greater savings for direct contracts." AWS' push into federal government cloud computing couldn't come at a more opportune time, either. ProPublica recently exposed Microsoft for using Chinese workers to support US government Azure customers after Redmond spent years courting the feds. We asked the GSA if there was any connection between the Microsoft news and the AWS announcement, but we didn't hear back by publication time. ®

Amazon Web Services to provide US government agencies with up to $1 billion in discounts

Aug 7 (Reuters) - Amazon Web Services has agreed to provide U.S. government agencies with up to $1 billion in discounts for cloud adoption, modernization and training through the end of 2028, the U.S. General Services Administration said Thursday. The agency said the agreement with the unit of Amazon.com (AMZN.O), opens new tab "will accelerate large-scale IT transformation across government and spur AI innovation." Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab

Amazon Web Services to provide US government agencies with up to $1 billion in savings

Aug 7 (Reuters) - Amazon Web Services has agreed to provide U.S. government agencies with up to $1 billion in savings for cloud adoption, modernization and training through the end of 2028, the U.S. General Services Administration said on Thursday. The agency said the agreement with the unit of Amazon.com (AMZN.O), opens new tab "will accelerate large-scale IT transformation across government and spur AI innovation." A government report in March said the federal government annually spends more than $100 billion to manage IT systems, acquire new systems, or update old ones. Amazon has won billions of dollars in contracts to help federal agencies transition to the cloud and for other services. The U.S. government has struggled for years to modernize its aging IT systems. The agreement offers up to a total of $1 billion in direct incentive credits in total across Federal civilian agencies including savings on core AWS cloud services, modernization and training credits. "This landmark agreement marks a significant milestone in the large-scale digital transformation of government services," said AWS CEO Matt Garman. Federal agencies will have access to AWS training resources and experts to help them move to the cloud. AWS supports more than 11,000 government agencies worldwide. The deal between GSA and AWS aims "to reduce the cost of federal IT expenditures, save taxpayer dollars, drive innovation and agility in new government services, and secure America's continued leadership in AI," the government said. In 2022, the Pentagon awarded $9 billion worth of cloud computing contracts to AWS, Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O), opens new tab, Alphabet Inc's Google (GOOGL.O), opens new tab and Oracle Corp (ORCL.N), opens new tab. The Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability was the multi-cloud successor to the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI), an IT modernization project to build a large, common commercial cloud for the Defense Department. Amazon during Trump's first term sued after the $10 billion JEDI contract was awarded to Microsoft. Amazon said Trump exerted improper pressure on military officials to steer the contract away from the company. Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne and Nick Zieminski Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab

Amazon's cloud business giving federal agencies up to $1 billion in discounts

Amazon Web Services has agreed to provide U.S. federal agencies with up to $1 billion in discounts for cloud adoption, modernization and training through 2028, an agency overseeing government procurement announced Thursday. The agreement is expected to speed up migration to the cloud, as well as adoption of artificial intelligence tools, the General Services Administration said. "AWS's partnership with GSA demonstrates a shared public-private commitment to enhancing America's AI leadership," the agency said in a release.

Amazon Gives Trump's Government a Billion-Dollar Discount

Donald Trump's tariffs might be slowing trade with other nations, but the favor-trading between Big Tech and the Trump administration is going strong. According to a report from Reuters, Amazon Web Services is giving the federal government a $1 billion discount in its cloud computing services, including adoption, modernization, and training programs. Sounds like a pretty sweet deal if you can get it, and the Trump administration just keeps getting it. Last month, the US General Services Administration announced a similar deal with Oracle, another cloud computing provider, that included a "75% discount" on the company's programs and platforms. And just yesterday, OpenAI said that it will offer its ChatGPT Enterprise product to U.S. federal agencies for just $1â€"significantly cheaper than the reported cost of the service for most companies, which have to pay upwards of $60 per user per month with a minimum of 150 users on a minimum of a 12-month contract. So what is motivating these companies to offer their products and services at a fractional rate? After all, government contracts are supposed to be so lucrative for these firms because the government loves to overpay. Well, there's the straightforward answer: Sucking up to power. Amazon has been at it for months now, doing everything from shelling out $40 million for a documentary about Melania Trump (talk about an overpay) to going out of its way to get the licensing rights to The Apprentice on its Prime Video streaming platform. It hasn't gotten Bezos and his boys much so far (Trump got Amazon's plans to display tariff costs on product prices scrapped by blowing up Jeff's phone), but they also know that being on Trump's bad side costs even more. The company claimed to have lost out on $10 billion in Pentagon contracts during Trump's first term simply because the president held a grudge. And then there's the slightly less straightforward possibility: sucking up data. It is cliché at this stage to say "If you're not paying for the product, you are the product," but there may be some relevance to the truism here. These companies are data hungry, especially as they seek sources that they can feed to their AI models. The government happens to have a shit ton of dataâ€"and the kind of data that they desperately want, because it is verified, unique, and provides detailed insight into human behavior over many years. We know that data is clearly up for grabs. One just needs to look at the work of Elon Musk's team at the Department of Government Efficiency, which seemed to almost entirely act as a data extraction service, to recognize that. So perhaps these companies have found their way to get their hands on something more valuable than a simple contract. Maybe they've found a way to tap the wellspring of information the government is sitting on, and all it costs is a rounding error on their books. Just a theory.

AWS is giving the US government $1billion credit to keep running its cloud services

Discounts keep rolling in as the White House centralizes purchasing The US Government has signed an agreement with Amazon Web Services (AWS) in exchange for $1 billion in cloud computing credits via its General Services Administration (GSA) as part of the White House's ongoing effort to streamline and centralize federal procurement (and significantly reduce costs). The US Government will have access to $1 billion in AWS credits until the end of 2028 to help support cloud adoption, IT modernization and training across core federal agencies. The direct incentive credits are made up of different categories, including savings on core AWS cloud services, infrastructure modernization, training and certification, and direct partnerships and contracts with AWS. In its announcement, the GSA highlighted the collaboration between public and private sectors, with the shared goal to "enhanc[e] America's AI leadership." "Through this new agreement with AWS, federal agencies will be able to enhance delivery of critical services, leverage cloud and advanced AI technologies, and dramatically reduce costs," GSA Acting Administrator Michael Rigas explained. Besides supporting the Trump Administration's AI Action Plan, the agreement also reflects on ongoing trend within this space. Hyperscalers and lower-tier providers have all been offering the US Government significant discounts to pick their software in the hope that they can win major contracts while also saving the White House billions in cash. "As federal agencies adopt advanced technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning, AWS is positioned to not only help them achieve immediate operational efficiencies, but also to build the foundation for a more secure and innovative government of tomorrow," AWS CEO Matt Garman added. The news comes just two days after the GSA confirmed a partnership with OpenAI, which would see ChatGPT Enterprise become available at a "deeply discounted rate" for all federal workers. Other recent discounts offered to the White House include up to 70% off certain Docusign plans and Adobe plans, and as much as 75% off Oracle cloud platforms.

AWS gives $1 billion discount to U.S. government agencies

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is showering the U.S. government with discounts. Federal agencies will receive up to $1 billion in credits to be used on cloud services, modernization, and training through the end of 2028, the U.S. General Services Administration said Thursday. The "innovative agreement will fast-track digital transformation and propel public sector AI innovation," according to its release. Shares in Amazon rose 1.4% during the first hour "The Trump Administration is rapidly modernizing out-of-date government systems, streamlining processes, and delivering savings to the American taxpayer through centralized procurement," said GSA Acting Administrator Michael Rigas. The "landmark agreement" positions AWS "to build the foundation for a more secure and innovative government of tomorrow," said AWS CEO Matt Garman. The partnership comes just a day after the GSA unveiled it had also struck a deal with OpenAI to cut costs and save taxpayer dollars. U.S. federal agencies will receive its ChatGPT Enterprise product for $1 through the next year, "helping public servants deliver for the American people," OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in a release. Workers will also receive ChatGPT features such as Advanced Voice Mode for an additional 60-day period. Both companies have sought to strengthen their ties with the Trump administration this year. Amazon contributed $1 million in cash to President Donald Trump's inauguration and also provided an in‑kind donation by streaming the ceremony on Prime Video, valued at another $1 million. The company also served as a corporate sponsor of the White House Easter Egg Roll in April. Similarly, OpenAI executives donated $1 million to Trump's inaugural committee. In June, the company launched a new offering called OpenAI for Government and said it was awarded a contract of up to $200 million by the U.S. Department of Defense. CEO Jeff Bezos has also reportedly been trying to secure more federal contracts for his space technology company Blue Origin, sources told The Wall Journal. Bezos and other Blue Origin executives met with Trump on at least two occasions in June, according to the report. Former Washington Post executive editor Mary Barton voiced concerns to The Atlantic in June that fear of a Trump backlash may be influencing media leaders such as Bezos, the Post's owner. "They're afraid of being made a target by Trump, that he's going to do severe damage to their other commercial interests," Baron said. "I think in the case of Bezos, he's afraid of the impact that Trump can have on Amazon, which has enormous contracts -- particularly in the area of cloud-computing services -- with the federal government."

Amazon Web Services to provide US government agencies with up to $1 billion in savings - The Economic Times

Amazon Web Services has agreed to provide US government agencies with up to $1 billion in savings for cloud adoption, modernisation and training through the end of 2028, the US General Services Administration said on Thursday. The agency said the agreement with the unit of Amazon.com "will accelerate large-scale IT transformation across government and spur AI innovation." A government report in March said the federal government annually spends more than $100 billion to manage IT systems, acquire new systems, or update old ones. Amazon has won billions of dollars in contracts to help federal agencies transition to the cloud and for other services. The US government has struggled for years to modernize its aging IT systems. The agreement offers up to a total of $1 billion in direct incentive credits in total across Federal civilian agencies including savings on core AWS cloud services, modernization and training credits. "This landmark agreement marks a significant milestone in the large-scale digital transformation of government services," said AWS CEO Matt Garman. Federal agencies will have access to AWS training resources and experts to help them move to the cloud. AWS supports more than 11,000 government agencies worldwide. The deal between GSA and AWS aims "to reduce the cost of federal IT expenditures, save taxpayer dollars, drive innovation and agility in new government services, and secure America's continued leadership in AI," the government said. In 2022, the Pentagon awarded $9 billion worth of cloud computing contracts to AWS, Microsoft Corp, Alphabet Inc's Google and Oracle Corp. The Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability was the multi-cloud successor to the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI), an IT modernization project to build a large, common commercial cloud for the Defense Department. Amazon during Trump's first term sued after the $10 billion JEDI contract was awarded to Microsoft. Amazon said Trump exerted improper pressure on military officials to steer the contract away from the company.