We're talking about different things, the 'intent' I'm talking about, and is the subject matter of this thread, was what was the real reason behind dropping out

We're talking about different things, the 'intent' I'm talking about, and is the subject matter of this thread, was what was the real reason behind dropping out of the contract bidding. Google gave multiple reasons for it. Of course they wanted to win the Pentagon contract, and there's nothing wrong with that, if it is just providing G-Suite, uncustomized, or lightly customized GCP computing facilities, the same as any other Enterprise organization could purchase. What Googlers objected to in Project Maven wasn't working with the Pentagon at all, but specifically helping them to design AI imaging stuff. Sell them Google Docs or Google Compute Engine? Sure. Some people in this thread have suggested Google dropped out because they couldn't meet specifications to get certifications, that's the cynical interpretation. The non-cynical interpretation is that the contract would require them to do things their employees object to, and make them look like hypocrites given their "AI principles" document. The idea that someone would drop a $10 billion contract bid purely over getting some bureaucratic certification doesn't make sense, because for a $10 billion contract (likely the low end giving DoD budgets), you'll spend $1 billion CAPEX if you need to get it, or more likely, go through providing the documentation and audits needed (besides, I highly doubt the competitors on the contract have anything approaching Google data center security levels)