China’s antitrust regulator has opened an investigation into Qualcomm’s acquisition of Israeli linked car chip firm Autotalks. The State Administration of Market Regulation (SAMR) alleges that Qualcomm is suspected of violating China’s antitrust legal guidelines by failing to reveal sure particulars of the deal.
Qualcomm had initially agreed to accumulate the fabless chip firm in 2023 to develop its Snapdragon portfolio into extra automotive purposes. Autotalks creates chips, sensors and vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication expertise targeted partially on car security. It’s been a number of months for the reason that acquisition was finalized, and the brand new investigation got here amid commerce negotiations between the United States and China.
The settlement was beforehand investigated by each the US Federal Trade Commission and the UK Competition and Markets Authoritywith Qualcomm briefly abandoning acquisition in early 2024. The actual strategy of how the deal was reopened is unclear, because the acquisition was solely introduced as soon as it was finalized and obtained regulatory approval.
Last month, SAMR stated NVIDIA’s $6.9 billion acquisition of Mellanox additionally violated home rules. Regulators additionally stated the deal violated conditional phrases outlined by regulators within the preliminary approval. monetary time reported that China’s regulators maintained that call for months, supposedly to realize leverage in commerce discussions with the United States.
Most of those investigations have come because the United States and China are engaged in negotiations over a TikTok deal, tariffs, commerce, and extra. Today China dramatically expanded its Export controls on uncommon earth minerals.aimed toward protection and semiconductor corporations outdoors the nation.