WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Republican Senator Marco Rubio on Monday blasted U.S. regulatory approval of a bid by chip mental property firm Alphawave to buy U.S.-based OpenFive, over alleged nationwide safety dangers posed by the client’s ties to China’s Smart Street Capital.
On Friday, the Toronto and London-based Alphawave, which licenses its know-how to chipmakers, mentioned it had obtained all regulatory clearances, together with from the highly effective U.S. Committee on International Funding in the US (CFIUS).
The $210 million deal is predicted to shut subsequent month.
The deal has drawn hearth from Republican China hawks in Congress, together with the influential Rubio, who has advocated for CFIUS to evaluation offers associated to China that he noticed as posing nationwide safety dangers.
Earlier this yr, he referred to as on CFIUS to scrutinize the Alphawave deal, citing Chinese language non-public fairness agency Smart Street Capital’s 10% stake in Alphawave and their 2021 settlement permitting Smart Street Capital to license Alphawave know-how to extend its buyer base in China.
Rubio on Monday accused President Joe Biden’s administration of “but once more” demonstrating its “complete unwillingness” to take significantly the specter of China aggressively shopping for and stealing U.S. mental property. “American competitiveness will endure in the long run consequently,” he warned.
The Treasury division, which heads CFIUS, OpenFive and Smart Street Capital didn’t reply to requests for remark. Alphawave declined to remark.
Liu Pengyu, a spokesman for the Chinese language Embassy in Washington, mentioned China opposes makes an attempt to politicize or intrude politically in mergers and acquisitions.
“Some U.S. politicians are … accusing China of “stealing” mental property rights however are brief on delivering strong proof,” Liu added.
CFIUS has taken a tough line with Smart Street Capital up to now. In December 2021, the non-public fairness agency and U.S. chipmaker Magnachip Semiconductor Corp mentioned that they had terminated their $1.4 billion merger settlement after CFIUS mentioned the deal posed “dangers to nationwide safety.”
OpenFive additionally leases chipmaking mental property to chipmakers.
Reporting by Alexandra Alper; Enhancing by Rosalba O’Brien and Richard Chang
