AMD and Intel hit with class action lawsuits over Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities

AMD now finds itself the target of class action lawsuits over the Meltdown and Spectre CPU vulnerabilities. The lawsuits claim that AMD statements regarding it vulnerability to Spectre and Meltdown were false.

Multiple lawsuits, such as this one, have now appeared and state, “The Complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and misleading statements regarding the Company’s business, operational and compliance policies. Specifically, Defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (i) a fundamental security flaw in AMD’s processor chips renders them susceptible to hacking; and (ii) as a result, AMD’s public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times.”

When the vulnerability was discovered, AMD issued a statement saying that although their chips were vulnerable to one variant of Spectre, “Due to differences in AMD’s architecture, we believe there is a near zero risk to AMD processors at this time”. Intel is also facing similar class action lawsuits as seen here.

AMD has said they will defend their position adding, “We believe these allegations are without merit. We intend to vigorously defend against these baseless claims”. AMD may have a point, the fact they added “we believe” could make a difference. Of course not being a lawyer, it’s not easy to comment on the finer points of the multiple lawsuits by investors that have cropped up.