Chinese regulators have approved Qualcomm Inc.'s QCOM, +0.41% acquisition of NXP Semiconductors NV NXPI, +1.40% according to a report from the South China Morning Post, which would knock over the final hurdle to approval for the $44 billion deal. Qualcomm stock gained more than 2% in after-hours trading Thursday after the report was released, while NXP shares rocketed almost 10% higher. The deal has been in the works for nearly two years, but was hampered by Broadcom Inc.'s AVGO, +1.85% hostile takeover bid for Qualcomm and became hung up amid trade tensions between the U.S. and China. Qualcomm increased its bid for the chipmaker from $39 billion to $44 billion as Broadcom was making its push to buy Qualcomm. China is the last of nine nations that had to approve the deal, but a regulator previously said that the deal had "issues that are hard to resolve."via