Microsoft Stops Using China-Based Engineers for Pentagon Tech Support as Hegseth Orders Review

Sen. Tom Cotton had raised concerns over reports that Microsoft hired Chinese engineers to work on the Defense Department’s cloud system.

The Microsoft logo in Issy-les-Moulineaux outside Paris on April 12, 2016. Michel Euler/The Canadian Press/AP

Microsoft said on July 18 that it will no longer depend on engineers based in China to provide technical support for maintaining the Department of Defense’s cloud system.

The move came as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered a two-week review of the Pentagon’s computing system to ensure that foreign engineers from China and other nations are not involved in the maintenance of any of its cloud systems.