The Netherlands seized control of Chinese-owned chipmaker Nexperia, imposing a one-year bar on asset, IP, and staffing changes after what the Ministry of Economic Affairs said as “recent and acute signals” of “significant scale and urgency” and “serious governance shortcomings.”
The ministry called the intervention a “highly exceptional” step aimed “to prevent a situation in which the goods produced by Nexperia would become unavailable in an emergency,” adding that the signals “posed a threat to the continuity and safeguarding on Dutch and European soil of crucial technological knowledge and capabilities.” They added that losing control “could pose a risk to Dutch and European economic security.”
The action, approved by the Amsterdam Court of Appeal, removed CEO Zhang Xuezheng from all management and board positions and installed CFO Stefan Tilger as interim CEO. The government also vested Minister Vincent Karremans with powers to block or reverse company decisions that could harm Dutch or European interests.
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The government said normal production will continue.
The order covers all Nexperia entities worldwide (subsidiaries, branches, and offices) and prohibits any adjustments to assets, intellectual property, business operations, or personnel for one year from September 30.
The Netherlands said the step protects access to chips used broadly in Europe’s automotive and consumer-electronics supply chains. Nexperia, headquartered in Nijmegen, is a key link in that industrial base, and the state’s controls focus on continuity of supply rather than halting output.
Parent firm Wingtech Technology, a Shanghai-listed conglomerate placed on the US Commerce Department’s Entity List in 2023, denounced the Dutch action, saying it “constitutes an act of excessive interference driven by geopolitical bias, not by fact-based risk assessment” and reflects “discriminatory treatment toward a Chinese-owned enterprise.”
The move is the first use by the Netherlands of emergency powers to take control of a Chinese state-linked company, signaling tighter European scrutiny of strategic tech and aligning with allied measures to secure critical industrial inputs.
Following the Dutch order, China’s Ministry of Commerce banned Nexperia China and its subcontractors from exporting China-made products, with Nexperia saying it is seeking an exemption. This matters for supply continuity because Nexperia runs an 80,000-square metre assembly site in Guangdong and the ban could curtail access to parts even as The Hague aims to keep production going.
This could also affect Nexperia’s broader footprint in Germany, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Britain, which helps quantify potential exposure.
Nexperia’s ownership has faced parallel scrutiny in the UK: in 2021, the company’s Newport Wafer Fab transaction drew a national security block, and in 2022 the government ordered Nexperia to divest most of its stake under the National Security and Investment Act.
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