China Approves AMD for €31 Billion Xilinx Acquisition

China’s market regulator has approved AMD’s acquisition of fpga manufacturer Xilinx. Chinese approval was seen as one of the last obstacles to the acquisition. AMD already indicated that it wants to complete the acquisition in the first quarter of 2022.

The Chinese market regulator does impose some conditions on AMD, writes Bloomberg news agency. For example, the company must continue to supply Xilinx products to the country. AMD is also “not allowed to discriminate against Chinese customers.” The State Administration for Market Regulation sets those terms after it determined that the agreement “could exclude or restrict competition,” Bloomberg reported. Reuters writes that the merged entity must also ensure that its GPUs and FPGAs are compatible with products on the Chinese market and that the development methods for FPGAs are compatible with ARM CPUs.

AMD announced in October 2020 that it plans to acquire Xilinx for $35 billion. At the beginning of last year, regulators in Taiwan and South Korea, among others, approved the takeover. The United States also approved the acquisition. At the end of July, the acquisition was also approved by the EU and the United Kingdom.

AMD initially wanted to complete the acquisition “by the end of 2021”, but indicated on December 31 that it would be postponed to the first quarter of this year. China’s consent would have been left as the last obstacle to the takeover. Now that the Chinese market regulator has given the green light, the acquisition can probably go ahead. AMD and Xilinx have not yet responded to the Chinese regulator’s message.

AMD plans to acquire Xilinx to gain market share in the FPGA market. These types of programmable chips are increasingly being used for network HPC equipment and hardware for embedded, automotive and broadcasting applications.