AMD: Antitrust ruling will unseat Intel

Intel has already come under antitrust scrutiny in South Korea, where regulators said in June that they would fine the company $25.4m for abusing its dominant position in the local chip market.

The European Commission decision comes a day after Otellini told investors that Intel, which controls almost 80 percent of the microprocessor market, has seen better second-quarter orders than expected. AMD has just started gaining ground on Intel, with its last quarter's market share showing 4.6 percent growth to 22.6 percent of the x86 market, following five quarters of decline.

The Commission's decision is unlikely to make any significant change in market conditions, Gartner vice president Martin Reynolds said in a statement.

"The Intel-AMD market share is likely to remain roughly aligned with manufacturing capacity, adjusted for technology capabilities," Reynolds said. "Intel will pay its fine and carefully inspect its sales relationships to protect against risky influence. AMD does not receive any money from the fine, which accrues to the EU tax budget. Intel's greatest challenge will remain market growth, not market share."