Microsoft

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Oil Industry Collusion

Cloud Computing

Microsoft is "working overtime" to close deals with the world’s biggest oil companies to help them boost fossil fuel production using the latest information technology.

For example, in February 2019 Microsoft and Exxon Mobil announced that they are partnering in the “largest-ever" oil and gas deal to use cloud computing, which the corporations say will boost production up to 50,000 barrels of oil per day by 2025.[1] This is despite the company's pledge to build a "clean and responsible cloud."[2] This joint project to increase Exxon's profitability and production in the Permian Basin has been reported by Greenpeace to inflate Microsoft's yearly carbon footprint by 20 percent alone.[3][4]

Earlier, in October 2017, Chevron signed a seven-year deal with Microsoft in October worth hundreds of millions - if not billions[5] - of dollars, using cloud computing to capture, store, and analyze terabytes of data for everything from underwater oil exploration to refineries.[6] Chevron plans to use the cloud to do everything from finding more oil to predicting needed maintenance on equipment to keep extraction operations running smoothly. The oil company is in the process of selling some of its data centers to Microsoft and plans to move the majority of its data and applications to the company. "This is happening, and it’s happening fast,” said Bill Braun, Chevron's Chief Information Officer.

In 2018, Equinor, the company formerly known as Statoil, announced it had signed a cloud contract with Microsoft for its operations worth hundreds of millions of dollars.[7][8] Despite joint marketing of their partnership around carbon capture and storage,[9][10] Equinor's profits are primarily driven by oil and gas,[11], and the company is still seeking new oil & gas drilling licenses in 2022.[12]

Earlier in 2018, Microsoft also announced that it would make its cloud computing available to oil and gas companies in the Middle East through two data centres in Dubai and Abu Dhabi [13]

Artificial Intelligence

Microsoft develops custom artificial intelligence software for the oil industry, leading the industry with even more contracts than tech rivals Amazon and Google.[14]

At the Abu Dhabi International Exhibition & Conference in 2018, one of the largest global events for the oil and gas sector, Microsoft's exhibit theme was titled “Empowering Oil & Gas with AI.” One Microsoft director touted the benefits of “AI, leveraging of the intelligent cloud and edge computing" for the oil industry as "manifest(ing) in better reservoir characterization, optimized drilling, reduced downtime, and safer operations to mention a few."[15] At this booth, Microsoft partners Maana, Taqtile, Blackstone, and DynaView exhibited their tech built on Microsoft's platform to support oil exploration, drilling, inspections, maintenance, asset tracking, resource geofencing, and geosteering for well paths and landing, using tech solutions such as IoT, VR, data visualization, and more.[16]

Microsoft Azure has also sold machine vision software to Shell Oil, and is powering its all-out “machine learning push.”[17][18]

Microsoft helped British Petroleum build an AI tool to help determine how much oil in a given reserve is recoverable.[19]

Cybersecurity

In 2013, Microsoft joined other American cybersecurity firms including Oracle Inc, IBM, CrowdStrike, Red Hat, and McAfee to investigate a breach of and bolster the cyber-defenses of Saudi Aramco, the world's largest oil company. Simultaneously, then U.S. War Secretary Leon Panetta met with a group of American CEOs on a U.S. battleship to discuss the event, assigning it unprecedented significance to Corporate America as a whole.[20]

At the Abu Dhabi International Exhibition & Conference in 2018, Patrik Sjoestedt, Regional Business Leader for Manufacturing & Resources Industry, Microsoft EMEA, shared insights in a panel discussion to address the rising cyber and infrastructure vulnerabilities of critical oil and gas assets.[21]

Greenwashing

Climate Pledges

In 2017, Microsoft pledged to meet the goals of the Paris climate agreement[22] and reduce operational carbon emissions 75% (from a 2013 baseline) by 2030.[23]

In 2020, Microsoft pledged an even bolder goal of becoming "carbon negative" by 2030[24] the same week it was co-sponsoring the 12th International Conference on Petroleum Technology in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.[25]

These climate pledges have not yet acknowledged or accounted for the impact of its billion-dollar deals with major oil corporations, in which it plays the leading role in designing custom-made automation software projected to profit the oil industry up to $100 billion USD in the coming decade while expanding exploration, drilling, and production.[26] Nor do they account for Microsoft's extensive collaboration with the US Military, the world's worst polluter and emitter of greenhouse gases.

Climate Denial

Along with Google and Facebook, Microsoft sponsored a tech conference in 2019 featuring multiple climate denial organizations and panelists.[27][28] The company contributed $10,000 toward LibertyCon, which featured speakers from the climate denial organizations CO2 Coalition and the Heartland Institute.[29][30]

In 2021, Microsoft joined with Apple, Amazon, Disney, and other American corporations and lobbying groups to oppose a proposed U.S. congressional $3.5 trillion bill containing "unprecedented measures to drive down planet-heating gases"[31] because it "raised taxes on the wealthy."[32] Although the bill eventually passed as the Inflation Reduction Act, lobbying pressure forced numerous compromises watering down or undermining many of the bill's ambitious climate goals.[33]

“Major corporations love to tell us how committed they are to addressing the climate crisis and building a sustainable future,” Kyle Herrig, president of watchdog group Accountable.US, which compiled the analysis, told The Guardian. “But behind closed doors, they are funding the very industry trade groups that are fighting tooth and nail to stop the biggest climate change bill ever.”[34]

Blockchain

Energy Web

In 2018, Microsoft joined several other companies to test the first version of Energy Web's first blockchain app, EW Origin.[35] Energy Web itself was founded the year before by Microsoft clients Shell Oil & Equinor, and other large fossil fuel companies like Sempra.[36]

Azure & Quorom

Back in 2015, Microsoft partnered with ConsenSys to offer Ethereum Blockchain as a Service (EBaaS) on Azure. In 2019, Microsoft announced Azure Blockchain Service as its successor.

Until it was retired in May of 2021[37], major customers of Microsoft's Azure Blockchain service included JP Morgan, Bank of America, Chevron, Starbucks, GE Aviation, Singapore Airlines, Nasdaq, and 3M.[38][39]

At the time of its cancellation, Microsoft suggested its customers migrate their projects already developed on their blockchain service to Quorom, the blockchain developed as a fork of Ethereum in 2016 by JP Morgan, the #1 bank investing in fossil fuels and climate collapse.[40][41]

Ultimatey, the Quorom Blockchain service is actually just "an enhanced version of the GoQuorom Ledger technology used in Azure Blockchain Service." It is still managed by ConsenSys on Microsoft Azure and based on a fork of Ethereum.[42]

When JP Morgan Chase sold Quorom to ConsenSys in 2020, it made a "strategic investment" in ConsenSys around the time of the deal. The CEO of ConsenSys is currently Joseph Lubin, one of the eight co-founders of Ethereum.[43]

The Microsoft Theater

THE CROWD FILLING THE MICROSOFT Theater in downtown Los Angeles buzzed with anticipation. Technicians in the control room readied cameras and then unleashed a kaleidoscopic array of spotlights that lit up the theater—the same one used for the Emmys. The roughly five thousand attendees began to rise from their seats, cheering and clapping their hands to the beat of a pulsating pop song.
Adam Neumann emerged.[44]

Psychological Warfare

In a strategy presentation from 1995, Microsoft's chief technology evangelist defined "evangelism" (marketing) as a "war" waged by the company with "psychological, economic, and political" weapons to achieve "total victory: ... a computer on every desk and in every home, running Microsoft software." [45]

In these documents, Microsoft explicitly defined its "power evangelism" as a form of mind control:

“Mind Control: To control mental output you have to control mental input. Take control of the channels by which developers receive information, then they can only think about the things you tell them. Thus, you control mindshare!”[46]

To achieve this goal, the company advocated numerous astroturfing techniques including:

1. subverting independent developer conferences

2. infiltrating and subvert developer magazines

3. monitoring (and writing on) relevant online forums at all times

4. getting 'expert' third parties to write books on Microsoft's behalf [47]

This strategy and these tactics were kept secret until forcibly divulged in a lawsuit resolved by a $179 million settlement paid out by Microsoft in 2007.[48] The following year, James Plamodon, the author of this strategy (who had since quit the company), disclosed that:

“It could be argued that Microsoft’s unethical Technology Evangelism (TE) practices are “old news”—i.e., that Microsoft stopped using these questionable TE practices long ago. This is very unlikely to be the case...”[49]

US Military Collusion

As the US Military is the world's largest polluter and emitter of greenhouse gases, Microsoft's deep and multi-faceted collaboration with the Pentagon is an essential aspect of its significant contribution to climate collapse.

US Airforce

In September 2017, the US Air Force (USAF) awarded the largest cloud contract in the government market yet with a $1 billion investment in a team composed of Dell, General Dynamics, and Microsoft.[50] The USAF is the single largest polluter of jet fuel in the world.[51]

US Army

The US Army awarded Microsoft a 10-year contract in 2021 worth ~$21.88 billion to produce a headset with augmented capabilities, or "Integrated Visual Augmentation System," based on the tech giant’s HoloLens technology.[52]

In 2022, Microsoft acquired Miburo, a cyberwar analysis company founded by Clint Watts, a former U.S. Army officer and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent.[53]

National Defense Industry Association

In October 2021, the National Defense Industry Association (NDIA) named 16 new members of its board, including David Caswell, head of critical infrastructure engineering at Microsoft.[54]

Threat Intelligence Center

The Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center conducts investigations of and issues reports on suspected cybersecurity breaches of military/weapons contractors on behalf of United States, Israeli, and EU military forces.[55][56]

NSA Surveillance

Microsoft sells classified versions of its operating systems to U.S. intelligence agencies and also cooperates with the NSA (National Security Agency) in such areas as encryption and computer security. Windows XP was also tested by the NSA. [57]

GROUNDBREAKER

The NSA's $5 billion Project Groundbreaker, managed by Booz Allen, was the "largest intelligence outsourcing project ever undertaken by the IC" to outsource, rebuild, and operate the NSA's internal telephone and computer network. Undertaken in 2001, more than one thousand NSA employees were transferred from the government to the private sector to work for projects contractors such as Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC), Northrop Grumman, and Microsoft, receiving monetary incentives to hire NSA employees.

According to Chuck Taylor of CSC, the project details are classified, and contractors are generally "not at liberty to discuss this contract at all"[58]

However, in 2005, the publication of internal NSA documents as reported by Cryptome showed how the program allowed contractors "to gain access to and even virtual control over some of the most sensitive systems within the U.S. intelligence community."

This included over 10,000 Windows + UNIX workstations + servers handling sensitive SIGINT, amid a 'modernization' effort to migrate operation workstations to a new Windows/Intel environment.

This alliance of contractors gained access to computers housing:

  • Databases that contain communications intercepts
  • Over a dozen mission-critical National Time Sensitive Systems (NTSS)
  • Hundreds of NSA intelligence applications[59]

With Microsoft servers playing a central and increasingly significant role in the NSA's privatization and expansion of its surveillance operations, the company's importance to NSA surveillance is reflected not only in its direct participation in Project Groundbreaker but also as a key software provider for the NSA and its contractors.[60]

PRISM

The Mass Surveillance Disclosures of ex-Booz Allen/CIA/NSA contractor & whistleblower Edward Snowden in 2013 revealed through classified NSA slides that the NSA's PRISM program "allows analysts to access data from nine major Internet companies, including Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Yahoo, AOL and Apple," as reported by the Washington Post in 2013. [61]

The Guardian further reported in 2013 based on the Snowden disclosures that Microsoft "collaborated closely with US intelligence services to allow users’ communications to be intercepted, including helping the National Security Agency to circumvent the company’s own encryption." Microsoft gave the NSA, FBI, & CIA direct access to illegally record - in mass amounts, indiscriminately - the private emails, chats, cloud storage, and Skype videos of its users. Skype itself was explicitly part of the NSA's Mass Surveillance PRISM program, even before Microsoft's purchase.[62]

Spying on Environmentalists

As journalist Nafeez Ahmed reported following the disclosure of PRISM in August of 2013:

Why have Western security agencies developed such an unprecedented capacity to spy on their own domestic populations? Since the 2008 economic crash, security agencies have increasingly spied on political activists, especially environmental groups, on behalf of corporate interests. This activity is linked to the last decade of US defence planning, which has been increasingly concerned by the risk of civil unrest at home triggered by catastrophic events linked to climate change, energy shocks or economic crisis — or all three.[63]

And in line with the NSA's privatization, many of the U.S.' biggest corporate polluters such as Walmart, Coca-Cola, Bank of America, McDonalds, Shell Oil, Nestle, Bayer-Monsanto, Dow Chemical, Kraft, Chevron, Burger King, & British Petroleum also "employ former CIA, NSA and FBI agents to engage in private surveillance work, which is often illegal in nature, but rarely, if ever, prosecuted."[64]

INSA

"For years, the most important contractor organization in the Intelligence Community was the Security Affairs Support Association (SASA). Founded in 1979, SASA was the premier industry group for companies doing classified work in what IC insiders call "the intelligence space" - the CIA, the NSA, and the NRO...

In November 2005, SASA was renamed the Intelligence and National Security Alliance (INSA)... (its) founding corporations included many of the major brand names in intelligence as well as a few new entries to the industry. Each... pledged at least $25,000 in membership contributions every year. They are listed on INSA's Web Site: BAE Systems, Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC), General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, Booz Allen, Mantech, Potomac Inc...

The other two founding companies, Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft, never belonged to SASA, as the others did. Their presence in the new organization underscores the central role that information technology now plays in the broader national security industry. '[Information technology] is now a huge part of intelligence,' says INSA spokesperson Jason Kello. Asked why the two IT giants joined an organization dedicated to intelligence, he cited INSA's shift in 2005 from a networking association to a public policy forum. "That's when Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard stepped forward and helped provide the founding efforts for INSA, monetarily as well as with expertise," he said.

A representative of Microsoft sits on the board of INSA along with many from the founding corporations named above, other war corporations such as CACI International and Northrop Grumman, and representatives from the CIA, DIA, DOD, Army Counterintelligence, FBI, DHS, and NSA.

In June 2007, INSA hosted a "DNI Industry Day" for contractors assembled to "learn from the ODNI about how your company can help achieve the national intelligence strategy alignment." Microsoft co-sponsored the event along with the Office of National Intelligence and other war corporations such as BAE Systems, Booz Allen, ManTech, SAIC, and Raytheon.[65]

NCOIC

The Network Centric Operations Industry Consortium (NCIOC) was formed in 2004 to "recommend a unified approach that would enable sensors, communications and informaiton systems to interact within a global network centric environment" and enable "continuously increasing levels of interoperability" across government, corporate, and national lines.

Along with Microsoft, some of the 27 other founding corporate members included Cisco, BAE Systems, Boeing, General Dynamics, IBM, ITT Industries, L-3 Communications, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Argon ST, CACI International, Hewlett-Packard, and Sun Microsystems.

Sources

  1. ↑ https://thinkprogress.org/amazon-google-microsoft-oil-climate-b8b1dd15f115/
  2. ↑ https://blogs.microsoft.com/green/2018/06/01/a-year-later-we-are-still-in/
  3. ↑ https://news.microsoft.com/2019/02/22/exxonmobil-to-increase-permian-profitability-through-digital-partnership-with-microsoft/
  4. ↑ https://grist.org/energy/microsofts-ambitious-climate-goal-forgets-about-its-oil-contracts/
  5. ↑ https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkonrad/2017/10/30/chevron-partners-with-microsoft-in-cloud
  6. ↑ https://www.wsj.com/articles/silicon-valley-courts-a-wary-oil-patch-1532424600
  7. ↑ https://www.wsj.com/articles/silicon-valley-courts-a-wary-oil-patch-1532424600
  8. ↑ https://www.energy-reporters.com/industry/equinor-and-microsoft-7-year-sign-deal/
  9. ↑ https://www.equinor.com/news/archive/20201014-northern-lights-microsoft
  10. ↑ https://no.usembassy.gov/microsoft-signs-mou-with-equinor-on-carbon-capture-and-storage-value-chain/
  11. ↑ https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/equinor-posts-record-profit-boosted-by-soaring-gas-2022-10-28/
  12. ↑ https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/equinor-others-apply-right-explore-oil-gas-off-norway-2022-09-13/
  13. ↑ https://news.microsoft.com/en-xm/2018/11/12/microsoft-demonstrates-the-power-of-ai-and-cloud-to-oil-and-gas-players-at-adipec-2018/
  14. ↑ https://grist.org/energy/microsofts-ambitious-climate-goal-forgets-about-its-oil-contracts/
  15. ↑ https://gizmodo.com/how-google-microsoft-and-big-tech-are-automating-the-1832790799
  16. ↑ https://gizmodo.com/how-google-microsoft-and-big-tech-are-automating-the-1832790799
  17. ↑ https://customers.microsoft.com/en-us/story/shell-mining-oil-gas-azure-databricks
  18. ↑ https://www.offshoreenergytoday.com/shell-in-ai-machine-learning-push/
  19. ↑ https://news.microsoft.com/transform/bp-ai-drilling-data-fueling-smarter-decisions/
  20. ↑ "Silent War" in 'Vanity Fair' by Michael Joseph Gross, 6 June 2013 https://charnwoon.us.to/news/2013/07/new-cyberwar-victims-american-business
  21. ↑ https://news.microsoft.com/en-xm/2018/11/12/microsoft-demonstrates-the-power-of-ai-and-cloud-to-oil-and-gas-players-at-adipec-2018/
  22. ↑ https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/microsofts-reaction-white-house-announcement-paris-agreement-smith/
  23. ↑ https://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2017/11/14/microsoft-pledges-cut-carbon-emissions-75-percent-2030/
  24. ↑ https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2020/01/16/microsoft-will-be-carbon-negative-by-2030/
  25. ↑ https://www.vice.com/en/article/xgqypn/while-microsoft-was-making-its-climate-pledge-it-was-sponsoring-an-oil-conference
  26. ↑ https://grist.org/energy/microsofts-ambitious-climate-goal-forgets-about-its-oil-contracts/
  27. ↑ https://gizmodo.com/how-google-microsoft-and-big-tech-are-automating-the-1832790799
  28. ↑ https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/01/ocasio-cortez-takes-facebook-microsoft-and-google-to-task-for-conference-promoting-climate-denial/
  29. ↑ https://gizmodo.com/aoc-slams-google-facebook-and-microsoft-for-sponsorin-1832131766
  30. ↑ https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/01/google-facebook-and-microsoft-sponsored-a-conference-that-promoted-climate-change-denial/
  31. ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/oct/01/apple-amazon-microsoft-disney-lobby-groups-climate-bill-analysis
  32. ↑ https://cleantechnica.com/2021/10/01/apple-amazon-alphabet-microsoft-disney-lobby-against-biden-climate-initiative/
  33. ↑ https://branchoutnow.org/democrats-in-congress-compromise-on-climate-goals-to-pass-inflation-reduction-act/
  34. ↑ https://www.ecowatch.com/greenwashing-corporations-climate-action-2655204112.html
  35. ↑ https://medium.com/energy-web-insights/engie-microsoft-sp-group-dbs-bank-twl-e-on-444145d44af4
  36. ↑ https://www.energyweb.org/why-we-exist/
  37. ↑ https://en.cryptonomist.ch/2021/05/14/microsoft-eliminates-azure-blockchain-service/
  38. ↑ https://www.appsruntheworld.com/customers-database/products/view/microsoft-azure-blockchain
  39. ↑ https://metaroids.com/feature/giant-companies-using-microsoft-blockchain/
  40. ↑ https://en.cryptonomist.ch/2021/05/14/microsoft-eliminates-azure-blockchain-service/
  41. ↑ m/sites/davidrvetter/2020/03/18/jpmorgan-chase-tops-dirty-list-of-35-fossil-fuel-funding-banks/?sh=436929685dfe
  42. ↑ https://mspoweruser.com/microsoft-azure-blockchain-service-killed/
  43. ↑ https://phemex.com/academy/what-is-quorum-jp-morgan
  44. ↑ "The Cult of We: WeWork, Adam Neumann, And the Great Startup Delusion," p. 8 (EBook)
  45. ↑ http://techrights.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/comes-3096.pdf
  46. ↑ http://techrights.org/2017/09/28/osi-and-microsoft/
  47. ↑ http://techrights.org/2017/09/28/osi-and-microsoft/
  48. ↑ http://techrights.org/2007/04/10/comes-iowa-novell/
  49. ↑ http://techrights.org/2008/12/27/microsoft-shills-aka-te-secrets/
  50. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20210923075530/https://washingtontechnology.com/articles/2017/09/21/dell-emc-gd-microsoft-cloud-contract.aspx
  51. ↑ https://truthout.org/articles/the-military-assault-on-global-climate/
  52. ↑ https://www.geekwire.com/2022/microsofts-headset-for-the-military-reportedly-results-in-physical-impairments-during-tests/
  53. ↑ https://www.geekwire.com/2022/microsoft-to-acquire-cyber-threat-analysis-startup-miburo/
  54. ↑ https://www.govconwire.com/2021/10/ndia-appoints-16-members-to-board/
  55. ↑ https://edition.cnn.com/2021/10/11/politics/microsoft-iran-hackers-defense-firms/index.html
  56. ↑ https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/security/blog/2021/10/11/iran-linked-dev-0343-targeting-defense-gis-and-maritime-sectors/
  57. ↑ "Spies for Hire", Chapter 1
  58. ↑ "Spies for Hire", Chapter 2, 6
  59. ↑ https://cryptome.org/nsa-stifle.htm
  60. ↑ https://www.linkedin.com/in/eric-reich-61b2682a/details/experience/?profileUrn=urn%3Ali%3Afsd_profile%3AACoAAAYW13cBoPRhrY4pONR6LOctwjjlRhUk8_4; From Nov 2015-Jun 2016, Eric Reich "served as a Microsoft SQL Server DBA on the GROUNDBREAKER program supporting multiple Microsoft SQL Server relational database management system-based backend deployments operated and maintained by Eagle Alliance Corporation."
  61. ↑ http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/agreements-with-private-companies-protect-us-access-to-cables-data-for-surveillance/2013/07/06/aa5d017a-df77-11e2-b2d4-ea6d8f477a01_story.html
  62. ↑ http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/11/microsoft-nsa-collaboration-user-data
  63. ↑ https://grist.org/politics/is-the-nsa-surveillance-program-really-about-spying-on-environmentalists/
  64. ↑ https://www.sustainablebusiness.com/2014/02/environmentalists-caught-in-nsa-spy-web-52164/
  65. ↑ Spies for Hire, Chapter 2
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