In a scathing blog post, Microsoft has accused Google of orchestrating "shadow campaigns" to discredit its cloud business, alleging that Google is funding an "astroturf" group to mislead EU regulators and policymakers. The software giant claims that Google is behind a new lobbying organization, set to launch this week, which will be directed and funded by Google to attack Microsoft's cloud computing business in the European Union and the United Kingdom.

According to Microsoft, Google has hired a lobbying and communications agency in Europe to create this new organization, which will be presented as a group of European cloud providers, rather than a Google-led initiative. Microsoft alleges that Google offered a significant sum of money to an industry group, Cloud Infrastructure Services Providers in Europe (CISPE), to reject a settlement with Microsoft and continue pursuing litigation.

The accusation comes just weeks after Google filed an antitrust complaint to EU regulators, accusing Microsoft of unfair licensing contracts for its Azure cloud services. Microsoft argues that Google's complaint is unfounded, citing the example of streaming services paying for the right to use intellectual property, and that Google should not expect a free pass to use Microsoft's Windows Server on its cloud platform.

The war of words between Microsoft and Google is heating up, with cloud competition at the center of this latest battle. The tech giants ended a six-year truce on legal battles in 2021, and it appears that the bitter rivalry is back on.