SAN FRANCISCO — Antitrust regulators in the European Union and South Korea cleared Qualcomm's proposed $38 billion acquisition of NXP Semiconductors, leaving only China standing in the way.

To obtain clearance from the European Commission (EC) and the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC), Qualcomm agreed to exclude some near-field communication patents from the deal and ensure that NXP licenses those patents to third parties. Qualcomm also agreed not to assert the NFC patents it will acquire and maintain interoperability between NFC chips and baseband chipsets offered by Qualcomm competitors. In addition, Qualcomm said it will continue to license NXP's MIFARE contactless payment technology on terms commensurate with those currently offered by NXP.