European regulators charged that US chipmaker Intel used coercion and bribery to unfairly gain market advantage in Europe late on Thursday.
The European Commission said that it had sent another so-called “statement of objections” to Intel alleging it has tried to exclude its leading competitor, Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD), from the x86 central processing unit (CPU) market.
The action follows a similar warning sent to the company in July last year.
Without naming other companies involved, regulators said in a statement they had reached a “preliminary conclusion” that Intel has engaged in another three types of “abusive conduct.”
The commission said Intel had provided “substantial rebates to a leading European personal computer retailer” to sell only Intel-based PCs. It had paid bribes to a manufacturer to delay the launch of a product using AMD products and also paid “substantial rebates” to the same company conditional on its buying all of its CPU units from California-based Intel.
The European Commission gave Intel eight weeks to reply and attend an oral hearing, and reserved the right to levy fines. It said each charge in and of itself was serious, but taken together they “reinforce each other and are part of a single overall anti-competitive strategy aimed at excluding AMD or limiting its access to the market.”
Intel said it was disappointed by the new charges, adding it believed the commission supported AMD’s position. It said it has always conducted itself legally and with a sense of fair competition.
Intel said the rebates gave lower prices to consumers and it was convinced it could rebut the Commission’s charges as unfounded.
Separately, AMD replaced its chief executive Hector Ruiz on Thursday, appointing its president and chief operating officer Dirk Meyer in his place.
The move was announced as AMD, which has struggled in recent years to compete with sector leader Intel, reported a loss of US$1.2 billion on the quarter. AMD’s revenue rose to US$1.35 billion from US$1.31 billion, but it was short of the US$1.45 billion expected by Wall Street.
AMD shares were down US$0.20, or 3.8 percent, to US$5.10 in after-hours trading. AMD’s stock was above US$40 as recently as 2006 and the resulting fall has vaporized US$20 billion in shareholder wealth.
Ruiz, 62, had been chief executive since 2002 and will continue to serve as executive chairman, focusing on a previously announced plan to develop a new manufacturing strategy that is expected to reduce costs. Ruiz had been one of the few Hispanic chief executive’s of a top US company.
Under his tenure, AMD rose to present its greatest challenge to Intel when it launched the Opteron line of chips in 2003. But delays in introducing the chip’s successors and a bad US$5.6 billion purchase of graphics chip maker ATI Technologies hit the company’s cash flow and profits, forcing it to sell an 8.1 percent stake to the Abu Dhabi government’s investment arm last November.
EXPRESSING GRATITUDE: Without its Taiwanese partners which are ‘working around the clock,’ Nvidia could not meet AI demand, CEO Jensen Huang said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and US-based artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer Nvidia Corp have partnered with each other on silicon photonics development, Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said. Speaking with reporters after he met with TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) in Taipei on Friday, Huang said his company was working with the world’s largest contract chipmaker on silicon photonics, but admitted it was unlikely for the cooperation to yield results any time soon, and both sides would need several years to achieve concrete outcomes. To have a stake in the silicon photonics supply chain, TSMC and
IDENTITY: Compared with other platforms, TikTok’s algorithm pushes a ‘disproportionately high ratio’ of pro-China content, a study has found Young Taiwanese are increasingly consuming Chinese content on TikTok, which is changing their views on identity and making them less resistant toward China, researchers and politicians were cited as saying by foreign media. Asked to suggest the best survival strategy for a small country facing a powerful neighbor, students at National Chia-Yi Girls’ Senior High School said “Taiwan must do everything to avoid provoking China into attacking it,” the Financial Times wrote on Friday. Young Taiwanese between the ages of 20 and 24 in the past were the group who most strongly espoused a Taiwanese identity, but that is no longer
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake and several aftershocks battered southern Taiwan early this morning, causing houses and roads to collapse and leaving dozens injured and 50 people isolated in their village. A total of 26 people were reported injured and sent to hospitals due to the earthquake as of late this morning, according to the latest Ministry of Health and Welfare figures. In Sising Village (西興) of Chiayi County's Dapu Township (大埔), the location of the quake's epicenter, severe damage was seen and roads entering the village were blocked, isolating about 50 villagers. Another eight people who were originally trapped inside buildings in Tainan
SHARED VALUES: The US, Taiwan and other allies hope to maintain the cross-strait ‘status quo’ to foster regional prosperity and growth, the former US vice president said Former US vice president Mike Pence yesterday vowed to continue to support US-Taiwan relations, and to defend the security and interests of both countries and the free world. At a meeting with President William Lai (賴清德) at the Presidential Office in Taipei, Pence said that the US and Taiwan enjoy strong and continued friendship based on the shared values of freedom, the rule of law and respect for human rights. Such foundations exceed limitations imposed by geography and culture, said Pence, who is visiting Taiwan for the first time. The US and Taiwan have shared interests, and Americans are increasingly concerned about China’s
RSS