SAN DIEGO — Steve Mollenkopf, the chief executive of Qualcomm, has been waiting for a phone call with news from China. It has been a long wait.

His company, which makes chips that help mobile phones communicate, has been on extended hold while the Chinese authorities review a deal that Qualcomm struck 20 months ago to buy another chip maker, NXP Semiconductors. Mr. Mollenkopf said Qualcomm had done all it could to persuade Beijing to approve the $44 billion transaction, which the companies have said will be terminated next Wednesday without regulatory consent.

But both the acquisition and Qualcomm have now become entangled in the trade war raging between the United States and China. China’s prolonged review of the deal for NXP is widely seen by analysts and trade experts as part of Beijing’s retaliation for President Trump’s tariffs on Chinese goods.

“We want to see it get done,” Mr. Mollenkopf, 49, said in an interview at Qualcomm’s headquarters in San Diego. When asked if his company was caught in the trade war, he said, “That’s probably accurate.”