China’s competition watchdog has conditionally approved AMD’s acquisition of data center processor manufacturer Xilinx. Among other things, future data center processors must be interoperable with Chinese products.
At the end of 2020, AMD announced its intent to acquire Xilinx for over 31 billion euros (35 billion dollars). Through the acquisition, the processor giant is heating up the competition with Intel. China’s approval brings its realization one step closer.
Specific conditions
The Chinese regulator imposed specific conditions. The acquisition may not force customers into buying products from both manufacturers in order for individual products to function. In addition, Xilinx FPGAs must be programmable and compatible with Arm-based processors.
Furthermore, AMD is required to ensure that the GPUs and FPGAs sold to China are interoperable with products from various Chinese manufacturers. This condition is particularly interesting, as it more or less aims to ensure that Chinese tech companies retain access to technology manufactured in the US, regardless of the many trade bans imposed on trade between China and the US.
AMD will be allowed to finalize the acquisition from February 9.