Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Amazon Web Services is the cloud computing division of Amazon, holding over $22 billion in classified contracts with U.S. intelligence and military agencies and serving as infrastructure backbone for Israeli military operations under the Project Nimbus contract.

Military and Intelligence Contracting

In 2013, the CIA awarded AWS a $600 million, 10-year Commercial Cloud Services (C2S) contract, with AWS building a private cloud region inside CIA facilities. In November 2020, the CIA awarded the Commercial Cloud Enterprise (C2E) multi-vendor contract — estimated at tens of billions over 15 years — to AWS, Microsoft, Google, Oracle, and IBM. In July 2021, the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) awarded AWS a $10 billion contract to modernize its data repository. The $9 billion Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability (JWCC) contract, awarded in December 2022, added AWS, Microsoft, Google, and Oracle as Pentagon cloud providers across all classification levels, with task orders reaching $2.7 billion by mid-2025. AWS operates six classified cloud regions.

Project Nimbus and Israeli Military Infrastructure

AWS is a primary provider under Project Nimbus, the $1.2 billion cloud contract awarded to Amazon and Google by the Israeli government in April 2021, signed during Israel's bombing of Gaza. Mandated customers under the contract include the Israeli Occupation Forces, the Ministry of War, and state-owned weapons manufacturers Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and Israel Aerospace Industries. The contract prohibits AWS from restricting how Israel uses its products, even if that use breaches standard terms of service.

AWS launched the AWS Israel Region (il-central-1) in August 2023 with a planned $7.2 billion investment through 2037. After October 7, 2023, Israel's internal military cloud was mitigated through Amazon infrastructure. Internal Amazon financial data obtained by The Intercept shows AWS consistently provided software to Rafael and IAI throughout 2024 and 2025. The June 2025 UN Human Rights Council report A/HRC/59/23 explicitly named Amazon as complicit in Israeli apartheid and genocide, connecting its infrastructure to AI targeting systems.

After Microsoft cut off Unit 8200's access to Azure surveillance storage, Unit 8200 planned to transfer this surveillance data to AWS.

Sources:

• +972 Magazine ‘No restrictions’ and a secret ‘wink’: Inside Israel’s deal with Google, Amazon
• AWS Now Open – AWS Israel (Tel Aviv) Region
• BDS Movement Microsoft blocks Israel’s use of its technology in mass surveillance of Palestinians
• CNN Amazon Wins $600 Million CIA Cloud Deal As IBM Withdraws Protest
• Nextgov CIA Awards Secret Multibillion-Dollar Cloud Contract
• Nextgov NSA Awards Secret $10 Billion Contract to Amazon
• The Intercept As Israel Bombed Gaza, Amazon Did Business With Its Bomb-Makers
• Times of Israel Amazon to invest $7.2b in Israel as it rolls out local cloud data region
• UN Human Rights Council A/HRC/59/23 Report