The building that houses Chinese chipmaker Nexperia stands in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. The Dutch government has taken control of the company. Image courtesy of The Dutch government and the Amsterdam Court of Appeal/EPA
The Dutch government has taken control of a Chinese chip-making company based in the Netherlands to safeguard the country’s access to semiconductors amid global trade tensions.
Nexperia, a division of China’s Wingtech Technology, produces chips used in automotive, consumer electronics and other industries. It’s vital for maintaining Europe’s tech supply chains.
On Sunday, the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs announced in a statement that it invoked the Goods Availability Act “due to serious governance shortcomings at semiconductor manufacturer Nexperia. … The decision aims to prevent a situation in which the goods produced by Nexperia (finished and semi-finished products) would become unavailable in an emergency. The company’s regular production process can continue.”
It didn’t elaborate on what “shortcomings” caused the move, except to say, “These signals posed a threat to the continuity and safeguarding on Dutch and European soil of crucial technological knowledge and capabilities. Losing these capabilities could pose a risk to Dutch and European economic security.”
The U.S. government in Dec. 2024 put Wingtech on its “entity list,” which identifies the company as a national security concern.
In November 2022, the British government ordered Nexperia to sell a semiconductor microchip plant in Newport, Wales, to prevent national security risks. It still owns a plant in Stockport, England, near Manchester.
The Goods Availability Act allows the Dutch government to take control of private companies in preparation for emergencies to make sure critical goods are available.
Wingtech’s chair Zhang Xuezheng was suspended from his position as executive director of Nexperia after the order, according to CNBC.
In a now-deleted WeChat post, archived and translated by Pekingology and reported by CNBC, Wingtech said, “The Dutch government’s decision to freeze Nexperia’s global operations under the pretext of ‘national security’ constitutes excessive intervention driven by geopolitical bias, rather than a fact-based risk assessment.”
It said that since it acquired Nexperia in 2019, Wingtech “has strictly abided by the laws and regulations of all jurisdictions where it operates, maintaining transparent operations and sound governance.”
