The Trump and Musk administration's efforts to shut down USAID have put multiple large cloud and telco contracts at risk.
The agency, which distributes billions of dollars in aid around the world, has been effectively put on hold with its future in peril.
Elon Musk's unofficial cost-cutting agency DOGE began canceling aid programs and contracts, security officials were placed on leave, employees were locked out of emails, and its website was taken offline.
Workers this week have been told to stay at home, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio saying that he was now the acting head. Rubio said that the plan was to merge the agency with the State Department.
"We are shutting [USAID] down," Musk said. Such a move would legally require congressional approval.
The abrupt and unclear changes mean the fate of a number of digital infrastructure contracts are similarly in the air.
Cloudshape was awarded a $144 million contract by USAID for critical hybrid cloud services over ten years, from 2023.
USAID consolidated its data center infrastructure in 2018, shifting to a hybrid cloud model which Cloudshape currently manages.
In 2021, the agency signed a $182m contract with AT&T for a decade of global network services. The telco supports domestic and international wireless and wireline connectivity needs for the agency.
USAID has also given $90m to Aecom as part of the G7 Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGI) initiative. The late-2024 contract will see Aecom work on rail, port, clean energy, digital technology, and food security projects worldwide.
In the past, the agency has spent millions on SpaceX Starlink terminals and contracts, including for Zimbabwe and South Africa. Its largest deal was to send thousands of Starlink terminals to Ukraine. At the time, SpaceX CEO Musk claimed that the company was not getting government support to send Starlink terminals to Ukraine, despite the contract from USAID, as well as other agencies and nations.
Also unclear is the status of US International Development Finance Corporation, a part of USAID, which has given out hundreds of billions in low-interest loans to support data center developments in Africa. The DFC has given $300 million to Africa Data Centres, $14m to Aqaba Digital Hub, and others.
It has also given $100m in financing to Africell to expand affordable mobile voice and data services in The Gambia, Sierra Leone, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, along with other telco projects.
“We’re honored to support the important work of the nearly 15,000 personnel at USAID who help under-resourced nations cope with famine, disease, war, oppression and natural or man-made disasters," Chris Smith, VP of civilian and shared services, AT&T public sector and FirstNet, said at the time.
AT&T and Cloudshape did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
