In a rare move, the Dutch government has taken control of Chinese-owned semiconductor manufacturer Nexperia, citing concerns about national and European economic security. The company, headquartered in Nijmegen, produces chips vital to the automotive and electronics industries across Europe.<\/p>\n
On Sunday, the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs said it had invoked the Goods Availability Act \u2014 a Cold War-era emergency law \u2014 to prevent a scenario where \u201cthe goods produced by Nexperia would become unavailable in an emergency.\u201d<\/p>\n
The ministry described the decision as \u201chighly exceptional,\u201d explaining that it came after detecting \u201cacute signals of serious governance shortcomings.\u201d According to the government\u2019s statement<\/a>, those issues \u201cposed a threat to the continuity and safeguarding on Dutch and European soil of crucial technological knowledge and capabilities.\u201d<\/p>\n Under the new arrangement, the government has the authority to block or reverse Nexperia\u2019s management decisions if it deems them harmful to national interests.<\/p>\n Nexperia\u2019s parent company, Wingtech Technology Co., called the Dutch intervention an \u201cexcessive\u201d and \u201cpolitically motivated\u201d move rooted in geopolitical bias rather than evidence-based security concerns.<\/p>\n \u201cWe strongly protest against the discriminatory treatment targeting Chinese firms,\u201d Wingtech said in a statement posted on Chinese social media platform WeChat, as reported by Bloomberg<\/a>. The company said it had \u201cinitiated all legal and diplomatic channels\u201d to challenge the decision and urged The Hague to revoke the measures.<\/p>\n The Chinese government also voiced its disapproval. At a regular press briefing, China Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian stated, \u201cChina always opposes overstretching the concept of national security and discriminatory moves that target companies from certain countries.\u201d<\/p>\n Wingtech\u2019s shares fell by the maximum 10% daily limit on the Shanghai Stock Exchange following the announcement, reflecting market unease over the escalating dispute.<\/p>\n Court documents and company filings<\/a> revealed that Wingtech chairman Zhang Xuezheng has been suspended from Nexperia\u2019s boards by an Amsterdam court order. An independent non-Chinese executive will reportedly be appointed with a \u201cdeciding vote\u201d in company matters.<\/p>\n Wingtech confirmed that its control rights had been \u201ctemporarily restricted\u201d but maintained that its operations would continue uninterrupted.<\/p>\n The Dutch action comes amid intensifying global scrutiny of Chinese investments<\/a> in critical technologies. The move also follows Beijing\u2019s recent tightening of export controls on rare earth materials, key inputs for chipmaking, signaling an ongoing technological tug-of-war<\/a> between China and Western economies.<\/p>\n Nexperia, originally spun off from Philips Semiconductors and acquired by Wingtech in 2018 for about $3.6 billion, has faced mounting scrutiny across Western nations. In 2022, the UK government ordered the company to sell its Newport Wafer Fab plant in Wales after a national security review.<\/p>\n Now, the Netherlands\u2019 decision marks one of the most forceful European interventions yet in the semiconductor industry<\/a>, a sector increasingly viewed as critical to both economic stability and strategic autonomy.<\/p>\n In the interim, Nexperia remains operational but under close Dutch oversight. The government said affected parties could challenge the measures in court while it continues to assess whether further steps are necessary to secure Europe\u2019s chip supply.<\/p>\n Earlier this year, it was reported that <\/strong>DeepSeek\u2019s AI models<\/strong><\/a> may give Chinese chipmakers an advantage against Nvidia by reducing dependence on high-powered hardware.<\/strong><\/p>\n The post Netherlands Seizes Control of China-Owned Chipmaker Nexperia, Citing Security Risks<\/a> appeared first on eWEEK<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In a rare move, the Dutch government has taken control of Chinese-owned semiconductor manufacturer Nexperia, citing concerns about national and European economic security. The company, headquartered in Nijmegen, produces chips vital to the automotive and electronics industries across Europe. On Sunday, the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs said it had invoked the Goods Availability Act […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5336"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5336"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5336\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Strong reactions from Wingtech and China<\/h2>\n
Broader geopolitical context<\/h2>\n