| Hello, This is Alexei Oreskovic, Business Insider's Global Tech Editor and West Coast Bureau Chief. Starting today I'll be sending a new weekly newsletter — "Trending" — dedicated to Business Insider Prime's tech coverage. Whether you work in Silicon Valley or compete with its denizens, our mission is to give you the info you need to stay ahead of the pack, with exclusive, fly-on-the-wall reporting from inside tech's most innovative companies; smart analysis that reveals the real story behind product pivots, management shake-ups, and acquisitions; and honest insight and perspectives from the players shaping the market. This week: The cloud is now in the center of the storm The booming cloud market is suddenly getting a lot of attention from new places, not all of it welcome. The Pentagon's decision to examine the $10 billion JEDI mega-contract, which was all but a done deal for Amazon,was a big wake-up call in Seattle. Sure, the move may be linked in part to Trump's personal grudge against Amazon CEO and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos, but it's hardly the only scrutiny Amazon's cloud business is getting. The US Federal Reserve reportedly paid a visit to an Amazon datacenter recently to better understand the processes and safeguards in place; And let's not forget that the big Capital One hack occurred on the AWS platform, even if the mistake was made by Capital One. The price of success is scrutiny, and Amazon is going to have to get used to it. Meanwhile, the top cloud players are scrambling to bulk up and pair up. As Julie Bort reports in her story on the recent Google VMware partnership, the intriguing backstory of the deal points to the frenzied level of competition and maneuvering going on. And it shows the power of having a shrewd strategist like Thomas Kurian, the Oracle exec that Google poached to lead its Cloud business, on your side. The wave of big-ticket M&A in the enterprise tech sector is also a direct result of the shifting balance of power triggered by the cloud business, as Megan Hernbroth reports. And Ben Pimentel spoke to IBM's cloud boss about his plans, following the $34 billion Red Hat acquisition. Check out the stories: Other recent tech highlights: Apple's third quarter profit was weighed down by an overlooked cost — it's now devoting more of its sales to R&D than at any time since it released the iPod The buzzy fintech startup Arcus has raised nearly $13 million. Here's the pitch deck that's helping it woo top VCs like Andreessen Horowitz Everything you need to know about TensorFlow, Google's own home-made AI software that's now helping NASA discover planets and beating champions at Go Saudi Arabia just made its first direct investment in a European startup, and it supports a VC theory about the kingdom's power in tech And more from across the BI newsroom: We identified the 70 most powerful people at JPMorgan. Here's our exclusive org chart. Uber marketing employees describe the recent 'bloodbath' when the company laid off 400 employees in more than a dozen countries this week 10 books that will give new managers the self-confidence necessary to lead, motivate, and inspire their team Thanks for reading BI Prime, and you can always feel free to reach out to me directly with feedback, thoughts and tips at [email protected]. You can also take part in our subscriber survey here. - Alexei | 