The Dutch government has taken control of Nexperia, a semiconductor company based in the Netherlands but owned by China. To do this, it has used its “Law of Availability of Assets” for the first time. And with this he has made the chip war face a new and tense episode.
what has happened. Nexperia is a chip manufacturer that was spun off from the Dutch company NXP Semiconductors. In 2017 Nexperia was acquired for $2.75 billion by a Chinese state-backed consortium, and became majority owned by Chinese technology group Wingtech in 2019. As indicated in Financial Timesthe company has now been unexpectedly seized by the Dutch government, which has alleged “serious deficiencies in governance and actions.” That allows Dutch Economy Minister Vincent Karremans to take de facto control over Nexperia’s operations.
Objective, protect Europe’s chips. It is the first time that Holland makes use of its “Law on Availability of Assets.” The economy minister assured that the decision was made due to “a threat to the continuity and safeguarding of crucial technological knowledge and capabilities in Dutch and European territory.” Nexperia produces used chips in the European automobile industry and in consumer electronics.
Geopolitical tension. The Dutch government’s intervention in the company has escalated rapidly in recent days. In early October, several court decisions suspended the powers of Nexperia’s Chinese CEO, Zhang Xuezheng. A court later ordered that he be succeeded by a non-Chinese director with decisive voting power, in addition to transferring almost all of the shares to custodial management. Wingtech officials have called the decision an “act of excessive interference driven by geopolitical bias.”
It was already on the “entity list”. The United States has already added Wingtech to its particular commercial blacklist —the famous “entity list”— in 2024, accusing it of helping China obtain sensitive semiconductor manufacturing technology. That forced US companies that wanted to work with Wingtech to obtain a specific license, and doing so is not easy. Restrictions on trade even with subsidiaries of companies on that list have become even more complicated a few weeks ago, which made working with Nexperia, a subsidiary of Wingtech, even more problematic.
The chip war intensifies. This technological seizure is another clear symptom of the growing geopolitical reconfiguration that we are experiencing in the technological field. We are passing from the era of economic globalization to an era of technological sovereignty and national security. For decades, market efficiency caused companies to seek global ownership and production even in critical sectors such as semiconductors. This decision by the Dutch government once again signals the end of that era of complacency in which if a Chinese company acquired a vital chip company on European soil nothing seemed to happen. Now it happens.
The Netherlands had already made things difficult for Beijing. If there is a leading technology company in Europe Nowadays that’s ASML. This semiconductor giant has an effective monopoly on photolithography machines SVU and High aperture SVU. The sanctions of the US and its allies ASML is prevented from selling in China its most advanced lithography equipment. Holland was therefore already one of China’s great “enemies” in this chip war, but the movement with Nexperia goes even further.
And meanwhile, rare earths and tariffs. The seizure of Nexperia is the new chapter in this recent escalation of events that was reactivated last week. China imposed new restrictions on rare earth exportwhich caused the US government will increase tariffs by 100% to Chinese imports. Tension is increasing, and the chip war could have enormous consequences for the global economy. We are already seeing it in the stock markets: the announcement of the tariffs caused a notable drop in both the stock markets like in the cryptocurrency market. We will see how this new move by the Dutch government affects these assets.
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