The law suit over the scope of the Nvidia License Agreement was initiated by Intel when it sought a declaration that the license did not cover the new QPI bus. I think the lawsuit was a strategic error by Intel because it allowed Nvidia to attack the entire structure of the license.
One result of the Nvidia dispute was that the FTC decided to include the Nvidia competition issues in its Complaint. After the Intel and AMD settlement a good case could be made that the antitrust issues raised by AMD were all in the past and were no longer an issue. I think that a Consent Decree between Intel that would define legitimate discount practices was quite possible.
Apparently, the Nvidia competition issues gave the FTC incentive to charge ahead with a very aggressive enforcement action to establish an aggressive regulation posture like the EU Commission and file a Complaint against Intel. At the very least, the most contentious issues in the FTC Complaint involve the Nvidia competition issues and those issues would not exist if Intel had not initiated the Nvidia law suit.
Market Data 
Markets 
AI
