The company said there should be an examination of whether political bias helped Microsoft win the bid.

Axar.az reports citing NY Times that Amazon on Thursday said it planned to officially challenge the Pentagon’s surprise decision last month to award a $10 billion cloud-computing contract to Microsoft, setting off another legal battle over the lucrative, decade-long project.

Amazon said it had notified a federal court of its plans to protest the government’s decision. In a statement, a spokesman for the company suggested that the contract for the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure project, known as JEDI, was awarded based on political motivations.

“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 influence,” said Drew Herdener, the Amazon spokesman, in the statement.

“Numerous aspects of the JEDI evaluation process contained clear deficiencies, errors and unmistakable bias — and it’s important that these matters be examined and rectified,” he said.

Daniel Ives, the managing director of Wedbush Securities, said Amazon’s protest “was to be expected, given how significant the JEDI deal is.” While new information about Mr. Trump’s actions could emerge, he said, he believes the protest was unlikely to change the result of the bid award, because “this is the most scrutinized contract D.O.D. has ever had.”

Mr. Ives said Amazon’s protest would prompt an internal Pentagon review that he expects to take 45 to 60 days and will delay the beginning of work by Microsoft. The decision is likely to be taken to court by the loser, but work should begin on the cloud contract as the court battle plays out.