Intel's antitrust woes have started to mount in the United States also. The leading CPU maker is now subject to a formal antitrust investigation by the Federal Trade Commission for its alleged anticompetitive conduct, according to several news sources.

NYT reports that Intel is accused of designing a strategy to maintain its quasi-monopoly through elaborate pricing tactics. The probe into Intel's anticompetitive practice has been authorized finally after being long blocked by Deborah P. Majoras, the former chairman of the trade commission. Fortunately for AMD and customers, she has been replaced by William E. Kovacic who, together with the other commissioners, support the investigation.

Thomas M. McCoy, Advanced Micro’s executive vice president for legal affairs and chief administrative officer, has issued a statement in which he said that his company's rival must now face evaluation of the impact generated by its practices on the U.S. technology market.

Intel is already on the verge of losing similar battles with regulators in Europe, South Korea and other parts of the world. The United States is among the last developed countries which start an investigation into Intel's unfair practices through which it wants to squash its smaller rival AMD.

Subpoenas have already been sent to Intel and AMD as well as their corporate customers. It remains to be seen whether the United States will go ahead and impose well-deserved sanctions on the chipmaker as it happened in other parts of the world where antitrust probes have been carried out recently.

On the announcement, Intel shares dropped 2 to 3 percent.