The hyperscalers’ hold on the global, multibillion-pound cloud computing market has come under repeated scrutiny over the past couple of years from governments, regulators and trade bodies.
In broad terms, the purpose of this scrutiny is to ascertain if the market’s biggest hitters, which include Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft, are behaving in anti-competitive ways to grow and protect their market-leading positions.
Where Microsoft’s activities are concerned, there is one particular behaviour the company participates in that has been singled out for criticism in many of these investigations. That behaviour concerns its widely criticised practice of charging customers more for wanting to run and host its software (namely Windows Server) in competing cloud environments.
It is claimed the tactic can make it cost-prohibitive for enterprise cloud users to run Microsoft’s software anywhere but on the software giant’s own public cloud platform Azure, which could potentially give it an unfair advantage when it comes to building its share of the cloud infrastructure market.
The CMA’s 637-page investigative report devoted more than 170 pages to discussing Microsoft’s cloud licensing habits in detail, and concluded the company’s practices are “adversely impacting the competitiveness of AWS and Google [specifically] in the supply of cloud services” and “reducing competition in [the] cloud services market”.
The CMA also stated that Microsoft’s licensing practices, “in combination with other features we have identified”, are further limiting the choice and “attractiveness” of alternative products and suppliers.
As a result, the CMA recommended that Microsoft be subject to targeted and bespoke interventions to remedy the impact the company’s behaviour is having on the UK cloud infrastructure services market as a whole.
At the time of writing, it is unclear when exactly in 2026 the CMA’s recommendations are likely to come into effect and what the long-term impact of them will be on Microsoft’s behaviour.
In the meantime, work is underway to secure financial recourse for UK businesses in the form of a burgeoning group legal action, which is open to any firm that fears it may have paid more “at any point since December 2018” to use Microsoft’s software in the AWS, Google or Alibaba public clouds.
Overseeing this effort is Italian competition lawyer, Maria Luisa Stasi, with the support of complex disputes resolution firm, Scott+Scott. They claim UK firms affected by Microsoft’s cloud licensing practices could be collectively owed £2bn in compensation.
The first round of court hearings on the issue are due to take place at the UK Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) on 11 December 2025.
The hearing’s purpose is to determine if a collective proceedings order (CPO) for the matter should be granted. This is a legal mechanism that allows a collective action involving multiple claimants with similar issues to band together in a single legal action against an entity (in this case, Microsoft) on anti-competition grounds.
If the CAT grants the order, that will certify Stasi’s claim and means her case against Microsoft can proceed to full trial, putting the businesses that have allegedly been left financially disadvantaged by Microsoft’s actions one step closer to being compensated.
The case itself has been more than a year in the making, as news that Stasi had submitted a claim for consideration to CAT first emerged in December 2024, with it being confirmed at the time that this claim would take the form of an “opt-out collective action”.
This approach makes it possible for class actions, such as Stasi’s case, to proceed against a company like Microsoft without needing to get those allegedly affected by its behaviour involved and onside first.
Over the past 12 months, Microsoft has been given the chance to respond to the claim, and – in October 2025 – Stasi issued her first call for businesses that suspect they’ve fallen foul of Microsoft’s alleged licensing practices to get in touch and join her group action.
Ahead of the 11 December CAT court date, Computer Weekly sat down with Stasi to find out what it is about Microsoft’s cloud licensing practices that persuaded her to take on this fight on behalf of the UK business community.
“Microsoft is dominant on some parts of the [IT infrastructure] stack and is using this power to impose things that otherwise will be difficult to accept for business users, and the reality is that they can do that because they limit choice for people,” she says.
“It’s not just about the [fact its services are] overpriced, it’s also about how difficult it is for users to switch and use other providers, and how that limits competition within the market.”
She adds: “[The cloud market] is a sector of the economy that should be very vibrant, innovative and open because we all rely on it, but it’s not. And someone is making a profit out of this situation, so things need to change.”
Stasi makes the point that it would be very difficult for a single business, upset with its treatment by Microsoft, to launch a legal action against the company alone and achieve that change.
“[It’s] my mission. to represent all of [the affected users] and try to get their money back, working on the theory that together, you’re a stronger force”
Maria Luisa Stasi, competition lawyer
“That’s my mission. I want to represent all of [the affected users] and try to get their money back on their behalf, working on the theory that if you unite together, you’re going to be a stronger force to be reckoned with.”
The UK court system is set up well to support this kind of claim, she says, with one of the most advanced systems in Europe for pursuing this kind of group claim. “It’s also exciting to be part of shaping this body of law that, to me, is one of the best guarantees we have for the public interest to be respected.”
Momentum for change
Citing the European Commission’s recently launched investigation into Microsoft, and the previous work done by Ofcom and the CMA to bring to light aspects of the software giant’s anti-competitive behaviours, Stasi says there is a real momentum building to get the software giant to change how it operates.
However, change will take time, she admits. “We are hoping to see some remedies introduced soon [on the back of the outcome of the CMA’s work], but it’s not a fast process, and even my proposed class action is not going to progress quickly.”
She says: “We went to court a year ago, and we’re hoping to have the certification in a couple of weeks’ time, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to get judgment anytime soon. But if we get certified [after 11 December 2025], we can start working towards the trial, and the game is on.”
Microsoft’s take on Stasi’s case
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Microsoft has not taken the news of Stasi’s legal action particularly well, with a spokesperson for the company sharing a statement with Computer Weekly that accuses Stasi of trying to opportunistically capitalise on Google Cloud’s complaint to the European Commission about Microsoft’s licensing practices.
“This is an opportunistic attempt by a law firm and its private funders to piggy-back on baseless complaints Google has made and which we’ve all addressed or rebutted,” the Microsoft spokesperson’s statement reads.
“We enable our cloud competitors to profit by offering our products to their cloud customers, and our competitors set their own prices when they do this.”
Stasi dismisses Microsoft’s take on her legal action and the notion that its existence owes anything to Google’s (now abortive) attempt to address its rival’s cloud licensing strategy.
“I’m grateful to my brilliant legal team and supportive funders, but the driving force for this case is me. What’s more, my voice is not alone. UK regulators found that Microsoft charges higher prices for using its software on rival cloud services,” she says. “The European Commission recently announced a similar probe into Microsoft’s cloud services.”
In response to Computer Weekly’s questions about how Microsoft has engaged with the legal process so far, she says: “It won’t surprise you that we have a completely different reading of what the impact of its actions are on the class [the businesses involved] and on those sectors of the economy overall.”
She continues: “We’re trying to do everything we can to solve all the different things that can be solved before getting to a potential trial, so that the latter can be straightforward and proceed as fast as is reasonably possible.”
I would be very surprised if nothing changes in the cloud market over the next five years. There are political discussions, policy discussions and enforcement actions coming down the line, so everything seems to be in place for a change to come Maria Luisa Stasi, competition lawyer
The trial will also be an opportunity to address what Stasi describes as an “asymmetry of information” in this case, which would not be possible without getting Microsoft into the courtroom.
“One of the aspects covered by this asymmetry of information is how many clients are actually paying what I consider to be an overcharge [to run Microsoft software in competing clouds],” she says.
“This is something I don’t know precisely, but our experts have been estimating this based on publicly accessible information. The precise number is known to Microsoft, but this type of disclosure won’t happen unless we go to trial.”
She adds: “The piece that I’m arguing is that Microsoft’s [behaviour around licensing has] a real financial impact on many, many businesses and public administrations, which needs addressing.”
With an imminent court date, the CMA’s actions set to take effect in 2026, and the European Commission’s own investigation into Microsoft now underway, Stasi says she is confident that the cloud market will become a much more level playing field in the years to come.
“I would be very, very surprised if, in five years from now, we’re sitting, having this conversation and nothing has changed,” she says.
“This class action might be one of the entry points [for change] and is particularly targeted on claiming back some extra charges, but there is a lot going on [in the cloud market] with the European Commission investigation and the CMA and the work they’re doing to restructure the market, but this is only part of the story.”
She then went on to cite the October 2025 AWS outage in the US, which had far-reaching consequences across the globe, as further evidence that having a market so reliant on just a handful of large tech firms is far from ideal.
“The outages are a strong reminder of what kind of harms and problems we can face as a democracy and as a citizenry, if we keep on having this environment so concentrated and so controlled in brackets by just a few global players,” she says.
“This makes it extremely difficult to guarantee basic principles such as observability, transparency, accountability and resilience. I would be very surprised if nothing changes in the cloud market over the next five years. There are political discussions, there are policy discussions, and there are enforcement actions coming down the line, so everything seems to be in place for a change to come.”
UK companies interested in joining Stasi’s legal action can find out more about it here: ukcloudclaim.com/register.
Michael Calore: Yeah. It’s like when people say, let me film that. You’re not actually filming anything. You’re shooting a digital video.
Lauren Goode: So then if you have a video podcast, are you shooting the podcast? What do you say? Do you say taping, then?
Michael Calore: I think you say recording because it just—
Lauren Goode: Recording the pod.
Michael Calore: Yeah.
Lauren Goode: We’re recording the pod.
Michael Calore: It covers all the bases.
Lauren Goode: We’re capturing it.
Michael Calore: That’s what we’re doing.
Lauren Goode: We’re sublimating it. All right. Well, should we record this pod?
Michael Calore: I would like to, yes.
Lauren Goode: Let’s do it.
Michael Calore: Honestly, I’m still recovering from last week’s Big Interview event. My throat is still feeling a little bit raw, even though it’s been like four or five days.
Lauren Goode: You sound delightful to me.
Michael Calore: Thank you.
Lauren Goode: But that really was an epic event.
Michael Calore: It was.
Lauren Goode: Yeah.
Michael Calore: You were on stage.
Lauren Goode: I was. I was first up in the morning. Katie, our boss, gave the intro to the conference and then it was me and Lisa Su, the CEO of AMD. And not only was it a really interesting conversation, but then I was done for the day. I didn’t have to do any more interviews after that. And I just got to listen and absorb, and there were some other really great talks.
Michael Calore: There were, yes. And we’re going to talk through some of them. We’re also going to listen to your conversation with Lisa Su, and then we’ll talk about it, and we’ll take listeners behind the scenes of The Big Interview.
SpaceX is planning to raise tens of billions of dollars through an initial public offering next year, multiple outlets have reported, and Ars can confirm. This represents a major change in thinking from the world’s leading space company and its founder, Elon Musk.
The Wall Street Journal and The Information first reported about a possible IPO last Friday, and Bloomberg followed that up on Tuesday evening with a report suggesting the company would target a $1.5 trillion valuation. This would allow SpaceX to raise in excess of $30 billion.
This is an enormous amount of funding. The largest IPO in history occurred in 2019, when the state-owned Saudi Arabian oil company began public trading as Aramco and raised $29 billion. In terms of revenue, Aramco is a top-five company in the world.
Now SpaceX is poised to potentially match or exceed this value. That SpaceX would be attractive to public investors is not a surprise—it’s the world’s dominant space company in launch, space-based communications, and much more. For investors seeking unlimited growth, space is the final frontier.
But why would Musk take SpaceX public now, at a time when the company’s revenues are surging thanks to the growth of the Starlink Internet constellation? The decision is surprising because Musk has, for so long, resisted going public with SpaceX. He has not enjoyed the public scrutiny of Tesla, and feared that shareholder desires for financial return were not consistent with his ultimate goal of settling Mars.
Data Centers
Ars spoke with multiple people familiar with Musk and his thinking to understand why he would want to take SpaceX public.
A significant shift in recent years has been the rise of artificial intelligence, which Musk has been involved in since 2015, when he cofounded OpenAI. He later had a falling out with his cofounders and started his own company, xAI, in 2023. At Tesla, he has been pushing smart-driving technology forward and more recently focused on robotics. Musk sees a convergence of these technologies in the near future, which he believes will profoundly change civilization.
Raising large amounts of money in the next 18 months would allow Musk to have significant capital to deploy at SpaceX as he influences and partakes in this convergence of technology.
How can SpaceX play in this space? In the near term, the company plans to develop a modified version of the Starlink satellite to serve as a foundation for building data centers in space. Musk said as much on the social media network he owns, X, in late October: “SpaceX will be doing this.”
Weatherproofing. Every model needs a weatherproof rating to survive outside, so if you don’t see one, don’t buy it. There’s usually a lower rating for the control box compared to the rest of the lights, so be sure you can put that somewhere that’s a little less exposed to the elements. (As mentioned above, make sure you have an outdoor outlet, and check if there’s only one on a certain side of your home in case it limits your installation options.)
A range of installation options. You’ll want a set that comes with plenty of options for your own installation, including adhesive and drilled mounting options. What you need will vary based on your home design and materials; e.g., you’ll want adhesive for homes you can’t drill into. WIRED reviewer Kat Merck, who tested a couple different permanent lights, especially liked sets that had holders you screw onto your home that the puck-style permanent lights can slide onto.
Controls for individual lights. This should be a no-brainer, but some cheaper lights won’t give you this ability or have more roadblocks for customized control. Make sure you’ll have easy individual controls, or you might find yourself frustrated with the design results of these lights. It’s similar to design controls that you’d see on smart bulbs and smart string lights.
A great app. This goes hand in hand with the need for individual light control—a good app determines whether that and other features are accessible. Govee and Eufy, two of our favorite permanent outdoor lights we’ve tried, both have good apps that are easy to use and come with preloaded designs. These tech companies make more than just outdoor lights and make other favorite gear of ours, so they’re a good brand to trust to make a usable product and app. We also like Lepro’s more affordable lights, though the app had some extra hoops to jump through to get to controls, while Lumary’s app was a brutal experience for our tester.
Our Favorite Permanent Outdoor Lights
We’ve tested a handful of permanent lights on different homes, and have a few clear favorites. These options are all ones we recommend, provided your home exterior meets the constraints mentioned above.
Govee
Permanent Outdoor Lights Pro
This model from Govee has been one of our top picks in our smart Christmas lights review for a reason, and it’s still one of our favorite models at this price point for everything you’ll get with it. WIRED reviewer Simon Hill tested the 100-foot string that came with six sections, plus an extension code. He used adhesive and screw clips to secure the light pucks and cables, and found installation easy. This is a set that you can cut and splice, but he says that isn’t a task for the faint of heart. It has an IP67 rating, and an IP65 rating for the control box. The busy companion app has everything you could want within it: color controls, tons of Scenes (Govee’s lighting effects), scheduling abilities, and even a music sync option (though that felt a little gimmicky). There’s Matter support, and Govee can connect to Alexa and Google’s ecosystems for voice control. Simon says he’d like these lights to be closer together and the design to be a little more subtle, as you can see the cords pretty easily.
Eufy
Permanent Outdoor Lights S4
WIRED reviewer Kat Merck has tested two different sets of permanent outdoor lights on her home, and Eufy’s S4, incorporating RGB with both warm and cool whites, is by far her favorite. She’s found the app incredibly easy to navigate and find the features she wants, from preset holiday scenes (120!) and colors to schedules and brightness adjustments. There’s even an AI feature that lets you create customized light shows based on moods and scenarios. They were relatively easy to install on her home, which has nonstandard architectural features, as this set has extensions and can be cut and spliced. She says the lights aren’t quite as bright as the Lumary Max set below, but the brightness is adjustable. There’s also a radar motion sensor included, which she’s still testing. The Eufy S4 set also works with the Matter protocol, so it will work with Apple, Google, and Alexa’s smart home ecosystems. It’s got a waterproof rating of IP67 like the Govee set above.
Cync
Dynamic Effects Outdoor Smart Eave Lights
Cync, which comes from appliance maker GE, makes affordable smart bulbs and other smart lights I like, so it’s not a huge surprise that I also liked the brand’s Smart Eave Lights. They were easy to install with 3M sticky strips already installed on the individual lights, and since my eaves are out of safe reach on my townhouse, I used the lights on my balcony railing with great success. One piece of the 100-foot set (it comes with four strings, plus an extension) was the perfect length to loop around my 9-foot-long railing. The set quickly connected to the Cync app, and the power cord is nice and long to make it easy to reach wherever your power outlet is. It has a waterproof rating of IP65.
If You Can’t Install Permanent Outdoor Lights
Not every home is a good fit for these types of lights. I haven’t yet found a permanent light set that works with my home, so here’s what I’ve used instead for a similar result.
Twinkly
Strings Multicolor
These lights are photographed on a tree, but they have a weatherproof rating of IP44 (for both the lights and the power supply) to be used outside. I love how much you can customize these lights. You’ll use the app to take a photo of however you’ve set up your lights, whether that’s around the tree, around your balcony’s railing, or along the front of your house, and then you’ll be able to customize the lights and pattern based on how you arranged it. There are tons of fun light designs already in the app, and you can make your own. It’s a good option if you can only do string lights but want smart capabilities. These lights are also compatible with Amazon’s, Google’s, and Apple’s ecosystems. Twinkly also makes an icicle-style smart light string ($110), which I love using outside too; they’re currently hanging above my garage door.
More Outdoor Lights We’ve Tested
Cync Outdoor Light Strip for $154: I was really hoping this would be a good solution for outdoor lights for my balcony, but this light strip is heavy and tall, and better designed to use to line a yard versus sticking onto the side of a railing. It comes with grass stakes to line it.
Lepro’s E1 AI for $153 (50 ft): These permanent outdoor lights are completely sold out right now, but they are another more affordable option. However, they aren’t as cheap as Cync and you will have to get around the app’s AI to really get the most out of it.
Lumary Outdoor Permanent Lights Max ($260 for 105 ft.): Lumary’s lights were frustrating and limiting for our tester. The app wasn’t intuitive or easy to use, and our tester actually had to have the power box replaced after she tried to connect the lights to a different phone. She liked how bright the lights were, and the fact there’s a physical remote, but the app, power box shutdown, and installation limitations compared with other sets (no splicing ability, installation recommended from the left) make this one we’d skip. Lumary has since released an updated version of its outdoor permanent lights, the Permanent Outdoor Lights 2, which includes a completely redesigned app, including the addition of custom-scene saving, but we haven’t tested them yet.
FAQs
What Are the Cons of Permanent Christmas Lights?
The only real downside to permanent Christmas lights, or permanent outdoor lights of any kind, is the cost. These sets usually cost significantly more than a light string, even the smart ones. That’s because they’re designed to last longer on your home, and the more expensive sets allow you to cut and splice the cords to perfectly fit your home instead of dangling strings and extra lights. It’s an investment, but one you can enjoy year-round.
Are Permanent Outdoor Lights Worth It?
Yes, because you’ll install them once and be good to go with every holiday in your future: Christmas! Halloween! Your fave sports team headed to a big championship match! Your kid’s graduation (or your own)! Similar to how smart bulbs can give you so many options inside your home, the possibilities are endless and something you’ll be able to use and enjoy year-round.
How Does WIRED Test Permanent Outdoor Lights? What Happens When We’re Done Testing?
WIRED tests permanent outdoor lights on the homes of our reviewers. We’ve tested these lights on three different homes in separate areas with serious weather: Washington state, Missouri, and Scotland. We’ve also tested a set in the more mild climate of Southern California. We install these on the homes themselves and leave them up for at least a few weeks, if not months and years (depending on performance), to see how they hold up. Our picks remain on our homes for long-term testing, as these lights are supposed to be permanent, and used sets are safely disposed of.
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