China's antitrust regulator has opened an investigation into Qualcomm's acquisition of Israeli connected-vehicle chip firm Autotalks. The State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) alleges that Qualcomm is suspected of violating China's anti-monopoly legal guidelines by not disclosing sure particulars of the deal.
Qualcomm had initially agreed to amass the fabless chip firm in 2023 to increase its Snapdragon portfolio into extra automotive functions. Autotalks creates chips, sensors and vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication tech centered partially on security for autos. It has been a number of months because the acquisition was finalized, with the brand new probe coming amid commerce negotiations between the US and China.
The deal was beforehand investigated by each the US Federal Commerce Fee and the UK's Competitors and Markets Authority, with Qualcomm briefly abandoning the acquisition in early 2024. The precise technique of how the deal was reopened will not be clear, because the acquisition was solely introduced as soon as it had been finalized and acquired regulatory approval
Final month, SAMR mentioned that NVIDIA's $6.9 billion acquisition of Mellanox additionally ran afoul of nationwide rules. The regulators additionally mentioned the deal violated conditional phrases outlined by regulators on preliminary approval. The Financial Times reported that China's regulators held on to that call for months, purportedly to achieve leverage in commerce discussions with the US.
The majority of those investigations have come whereas the US and China are engaged in negotiations round a TikTok deal, tariffs, commerce and extra. As we speak China drastically expanded its export controls for uncommon earth minerals, concentrating on protection and semiconductor firms exterior the nation.
This text initially appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/chinese-regulators-are-investigating-qualcomms-acquisition-of-autotalks-121540269.html?src=rss