Chinese regulators have approved Qualcomm's $44 billion purchase of NXP, the South China Morning Post[1] said citing people with knowledge of the matter.

The decision by China's Ministry of Commerce clears months of antitrust roadblock caused by trade tensions between the US and Beijing, and will allow the takeover to proceed, the paper said.

With the green light from China's Ministry of Commerce, the deal has effectively been approved by all nine required global regulators.

The US chip maker first announced[2] its bid to take over the Dutch semiconductor firm in 2016.

It was a strategic move to lessen reliance on its previous licensing business model in phones and find to growth in areas such as automobile, which NXP has a strong portfolio on.

Approval from China was the final roadblock[3] of seeing the deal through as other regulators have already given the greenlight.

The trade war between China and US[4] has temporarily put the deal in doubt.

ZTE was initially banned from the US market but the Trump administration has recently reversed course[5].

Qualcomm is yet to officially confirm the deal's approval.

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