The Dutch government has taken the “exceptional” step of seizing control of strategically important Dutch chip maker, Nexperia, from its Chinese owner, Wingtech, according to Reuters. The government says it is concerned that important technologies could be transferred to the Chinese parent company. With this manoeuvre, it can block any such attempts, maintaining this “crucial technological knowledge and capabilities on Dutch and European soil.”
Nexperia is one of the largest companies in the world when it comes to manufacturing simple silicon components like diodes and transistors, MOSFETs, and logic gates that are found in all manner of modern electronics. Chinese parent company, Wingtech, has been on the United States “entity list” for the past year, highlighting it as a potential security concern. That list was expanded in September to include subsidiaries of those companies, suggesting Nexperia itself may have come up as a potential security concern.
Although not confirmed, that causal link is there, and the Dutch government has firmly taken control of the company. A Dutch judge ousted the Chairman, Zhang Xuezheng, earlier this month. Wingtech has now pledged to replace him with a non-Chinese person in due course.
The government will also now be able to block or reverse any management decisions it sees as harmful, though regular company operation will continue at its various facilities around the world, including factories in Germany and the UK.
The decision to take control of Nexperia came following “acute signals of serious administrative shortcomings and actions” at the company, according to the Dutch government. “These signals threaten the continuity and safeguarding of crucial technological knowledge and capabilities on Dutch and European soil.”
“The loss of these capabilities could pose a risk to Dutch and European economic security,” it added. For its part, Wingtech said it was speaking to lawyers and seeking government help to “protect the legitimate rights and interests of the company.”
It’s not clear what technologies in particular the Dutch government is keen to protect, but semiconductor companies all over the world are now seen just as important for strategic defense reasons as they are for commercial opportunities. Modern processors are required for the latest high-tech drones and missile technologies, as well as high-end infrastructure and modern AI developments, making them technologies that governments the world over are looking to husband and protect.
As many countries around the world look to build up their semiconductor manufacturing capabilities and control their own AI-data centers, we’re starting to see more of a multi-polar world trading economy, more so than the highly interlinked one of recent years.
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