New York To Investigate Intel

First thing Thursday morning New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said he’s going to investigate Intel for antitrust violations on the now familiar theory that it coerced customers to exclude AMD from the market, the same AMD claims that have gotten Intel into hot water with antitrust authorities in Europe, Korea and Japan and the basis for AMD’s massive antitrust suit against Intel in Delaware.

Upstate New York of course is where AMD is proposing to build a multibillion-dollar manufacturing plant if its mysterious “asset lite” strategy allows it, if it can scrounge up the money, and if it isn’t persuaded to build it in Germany where its other fabs are.

AMD may have told Cuomo it doesn’t have the money because of Intel’s competition.

Cuomo has served Intel with a subpoena seeking documents and information about its pricing practices. He’s looking for evidence that it penalized OEMs for buying chips from AMD, improperly paid customers for exclusive deals, and illegally cut AMD off from distribution channels.

According to his office, a preliminary review raised enough questions to warrant a full-blown investigation.