Microsoft believes it is open enough to cooperate with the U.S. military. This can be read from the company's recent proxy statement (opens in new tab) to investors ahead of its annual shareholder meeting in December, in which Microsoft's board of directors opposed two shareholder proposals that would have required the company to file a report on its dealings with the Pentagon.

The fourth shareholder proposal, found by Eurogamer (opens in new tab) and addressed in the statement, if passed, would require a report on whether Microsoft's defense transactions "contribute to violations of privacy, civil and human rights" or "whether Microsoft's CSR report ( (opens in new tab)) to commission a report assessing "whether they are in conflict with the policies and principles set forth in Microsoft's CSR Report (opens in new tab).

The fifth proposal, on the other hand, would mandate a report examining the potential for "reputational and financial risks to the company from being perceived as a company involved in the development of weapons used by the military."

However, Microsoft's board of directors has stated that there is no need to worry. The "Microsoft senior leadership team has deliberated and made a principled decision that we will not withhold technology from an elected body in a democracy to protect the freedoms we enjoy." The statement further states that Microsoft "has communicated its position to its employees and in external communications such as blog postings. As a result, it does not believe that the requested third-party analysis will advance the interests of Microsoft, its shareholders, or other stakeholders."

Microsoft's HoloLens contract with the U.S. military is worth $22 billion on its own, and the company finally began shipping headsets to the military in mid-September of last year (opens in new tab). The deal was made despite protests (open in new tab) by Microsoft employees who objected to "using the tools we created to help one country's government 'improve its ability to kill.'"

The board addressed these protests obliquely in its proxy statement, stating that it has "an approach that allows those with such concerns to raise them" and that the company will work with those employees "to the extent feasible to address these concerns." Unfortunately for the employees who had appealed to Microsoft to "cease development of any weapons technology," that option does not seem to fall within the "feasible scope."

The mandate is not the end of the story; it is merely a series of recommendations from the board to the shareholders. Given how lucrative the deal is and how firmly the Microsoft board opposes it, it certainly seems unlikely, but we'll know more when the company holds its annual shareholders meeting on December 13 (opens in new tab).