Oracle, Google 'shining like a bright star' in $9B Pentagon cloud deal
icholakov

Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) and Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) (GOOGL) are seen as "shining like a bright star" after their inclusion in the Pentagon's new $9B Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability contract according to analyst Dan Ives, of Wedbush Securities.
Ives said the deal, which was announced on Wednesday and also includes Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), was the "single biggest" to come out of Washington and a "huge win" for all four companies. However, Ives said that Google (GOOG) (GOOGL) and Oracle (ORCL) benefited more as cloud computing was previously seen as a two horse race between Amazon (AMZN) Web Services and Microsoft (MSFT) Azure.
"Both vendors did well in cloud bake offs and have significantly raised their cloud and growth profile over the past few years inside and outside of the Beltway," Ives wrote in a note to clients.
Oracle (ORCL), Microsoft (MSFT), Amazon (AMZN) and Google (GOOG) (GOOGL) all saw their shares edge higher in early trading on Thursday.
Microsoft (MSFT) had been the sole winner of the previous $10B Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure, or JEDI, contract. The JEDI contract was canceled in July 2021 after Amazon (AMZN) sued the government alleging that its exclusion may have been related due to former President Trump's dislike of Amazon Chief Executive Jeff Bezos, who also owns the Washington Post. Oracle (ORCL) also previously challenged the deal.
Nonetheless, Ives noted that the deal is "significant" for all four companies and will "serve as the core foundation providing access to data for US military personnel around the world." 
Citi analyst Ronald Josey noted that the fact that the deal was given to all four companies "highlights just how competitive the cloud industry continues to be and the increasing adoption of the multi-cloud approach among buyers."
Josey added that while AWS remains the leader in cloud computing in terms of products, capabilities and scale, the deal is likely to boost each provider's public sector business. Josey has a buy rating and $145-a-share price target on Amazon (AMZN).
On Tuesday, it was reported that Microsoft (MSFT) was looking at building a new "super app" that would attempt to break the stranglehold that Apple (AAPL) and Google (GOOG) (GOOGL) have in the mobile technology space.