AMD targeted in lawsuit over 'misleading' Spectre CPU bug claims

AMD used Spectre misinformation to manipulate share price, claims miffed investor

Despite being considerably less exposed than Intel to the chip security flaws revealed last week, AMD has been slapped with a class-action lawsuit - this time over claims that it artificially inflated its stock price by keeping quiet about the fact that the high-profile Spectre flaws affects its CPUs.

The filing has been made in a US court in the northern district of California made by Pomerantz LLP on behalf of shareholder Doyun Kim.

He claims that AMD's initial reaction to the flaw, which saw it declare that Spectre posed "near zero risk" to its chips before admitting that its processors were, in fact, affected by both variants of the vulnerability, resulted in AMD's stock prices first spiking, then falling.

"As a result of defendants' wrongful acts and omissions, and the precipitous decline in the market value of the company's common shares, the plaintiff and other class members have suffered significant losses and damages," the filing claims.

AMD, of course, is not alone in facing court filings. Intel has already been hit by a number of class-action lawsuits over both Meltdown and Spectre.

Given that both CPU flaws - Meltdown and Spectre - have effectively sat dormant for years, throwing court cases at Intel and AMD may seem unfair.

That said, Google's Project Zero team, which was instrumental in uncovering the CPU flaws, had apparently informed the two companies about Spectre back in June 2017, so they have had plenty of time to assess the potential impact of the flaw.

The filing made against AMD demands a jury trial, which means that if it goes forward, the chipmaker will be given a thorough grilling over Spectre could see its share prices fall again.

However, class-action lawsuits are launched by shareholders on a regular basis in the US, normally with the aim of extracting an out-of-court settlement from targetted companies, rather than the expense and gamble of a protracted court case.