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Some more context from a dutch news source[0]: The ministry of economic affairs intervened out of a fear that crucial technological skills and capacities will

• rzerowan 1y ago
  Maybe pressure from the US gov? As a negotiatingtactic vs China - remeber the moves against MotorSich in Ukraine some years back , where the deal was win-win for both but Washington put the kibosh on it and ultimately got destroyed by Russian offensive. Since the speed/urgency and unusual application of the law as you mention , mean extraodinary actions must have quite extraordinary causes. In any case still too many unknowns in the story , hopefully clarity ensues soonest.
  • Doxin 1y ago
    Believe it or not, but the dutch government has agency. It's not impossible for US pressure to be a factor, but I think it's more likely the management of the company was planning to move production to china or something like that. That'd (rightly!) spook the government into some quick action, especially given the political climate around Russia seemingly not being content with having their war confined to Ukraine. Unfortunately we seem to be living in interesting times.
    • dragonelite 1y ago
      The US has immense pressure on the dutch government, given their control over ASML . Its US big tech and semi design studios that determines who will need to buy EUV from ASML. Given ASML is not allowed to do business with China, Russia etc.
      • sgt101 1y ago
        Where else will they buy EUV from?
        • dragonelite 1y ago
          Its China they will create their own EUV ecosystem, there are sources that keep track of Chinese developments and there's a lot of EUV related patents being rewarded within China. So i wouldn't be surprised if they will announce first initial set of EUV test runs this year or early next year as a cherry on top of their "Made in China 2025" cake.
          • sgt101 1y ago
            1. OP and me were talking about the US government. 2. It's quite possible you are right about Chinese EUV capabilities - I don't have a clue myself as I don't work for NSA or CIA. On the other hand it's one more very big challenge in a field of big challenges and despite what the CCP says Chinese resources are very far from infinite and the clock is ticking demographically. 3. A set of EUV test runs would not impress me to be honest - a full blown production line of EUV generated chips would. The issue doesn't seem to be in doing EUV, the issue is to build systems that can sustain quality at volume.
• tmnvix 1y ago
  > For context, the law that allows this all to happen was passed in 1952 and has never before been used. Interesting parallel here with China recently invoking - for the first time - their own legislation from the 50's to ban rare earth exports for military uses.
  • dylan604 1y ago
    How can you say what the minerals were actually used for though is the question I always have in these types of situations. There are multiple uses of the minerals. Since I've now gotten a literal boat load of the minerals from you, I can use those minerals on other things which now frees up my personal source of minerals on the things you didn't want them used in. In the spirit of the agreement, I'm in full compliance all while achieving the thing you didn't want me to achieve. It's nothing but Pilate washing his hands
    • dgfitz 1y ago
      Are you tracking that harvesting REM is a nasty business with a lot of “don’t look” environmental impacts? As such, most countries don’t do it, or have an infrastructure for it.
      • dylan604 1y ago
        https://rareearthexchanges.com/best-rare-earth-mining-companies-in-the-usa/ https://rareearthexchanges.com/best-rare-earth-mining-compan... Plenty of US companies ready and willing. They've finally gotten an administration that is of like mind on screw the environment and dig dig dig.
        • dgfitz 1y ago
          So, you agree?
          • dylan604 1y ago
            Agree with what? What is it that you think is a gotcha here?
• nonethewiser 1y ago
  So what just happened logistically? I assume this is an entirely independent Chinese company without some Dutch sponsor or something. That conforms to local regulations. But now The Dutch government says "we have this new power over you" and that is that. With the consequence presumably being export control on dutch tech, banning from their market, etc? Or were there any more hooks planted that make it easier to force compliance? For example -- and I assume this is not the case in the Netherlands -- in China there is a 51% ownership of the foreign company by a local company (which is more or less state controlled).
  • q3k 1y ago
    > I assume this is an entirely independent Chinese company. It's worth noting that Nexperia is a spin-off of NXP (Dutch company) which itself is a spin-off of Philips' (Dutch company) semiconductor division. It's also worth noting that Nexperia's Chinese owners (Wingtech) are at least partially state controlled.
    • teekert 1y ago
      Perhaps also worth noting that ASML is also a spin-off of Philips.
      • jacquesm 1y ago
        And that the two collaborate closely on all kinds of projects, and that NXP (the former owner of the business unit that became Nexperia) and Nexperia (the company that is the focus of this action) are both customers of ASML.
    • khuey 1y ago
      Nexperia was also spun off to placate Chinese regulators back when Qualcomm wanted to acquire NXP, and then after the spin off the Chinese regulators still refused to approve the acquisition.
      • galangalalgol 1y ago
• NicoJuicy 1y ago
  Germany implemented something similar like this after China took over Kuka (industry leading robotics) and practically build an entire industry of robotics in China after that. And of course, the jobs disappeared from Germany.
  • q3k 1y ago
    Did they? As far as I know Kuka is still fully controlled by Midea.
    • NicoJuicy 1y ago
      The regulation was created after that
  • em-bee 1y ago
    the jobs didn't disappear (yet). they grew from 13.000 in 2014 before midea took over to 15.000 in 2024. maybe they could have grown more in germany if midea hadn't taken over. who knows.
    • NicoJuicy 1y ago
      There are only about 3200 jobs in Augsburg (Germany), it's HQ? https://www.marketscreener.com/quote/stock/KUKA-AG-436260/news/Robot-supplier-Kuka-plans-to-cut-400-jobs-49129198/ https://www.marketscreener.com/quote/stock/KUKA-AG-436260/ne... Note: Looking for more information about the distribution of jobs atm ( countries). But it's hard to find. Any resources? But you're right. They still have jobs there, I didn't knew that. Note: This is about the law Germany created afterwards: https://www.akingump.com/en/insights/alerts/germany-tightens-rules-on-foreign-direct-investment https://www.akingump.com/en/insights/alerts/germany-tightens...
      • em-bee 1y ago
        well, the real question is, are those 15.000 employees in germany? and were they in germany before? i just found the number on wikipedia, but now i looked up the 2024 report that says that 4600 are in germany, and 10600 are outside. in the 2014 report it says 4700 are in germany, 4500 rest of europe, 1700 north america, and 1100 elsewhere. so it doesn't look like any jobs were moved.
• miohtama 1y ago
  Could be worse. Could be TikTok and threat to national security.
• javiramos 1y ago
  nincompoops... learned a new word today
  • ChrisMarshallNY 1y ago
    It has an interesting etymology: https://nydamprintsblackandwhite.blogspot.com/2014/09/words-of-month-of-nimrods-and.html https://nydamprintsblackandwhite.blogspot.com/2014/09/words-...
• HSO 1y ago
  [flagged]
  • mk89 1y ago
    > inferiority complex about China. That's not some s** that someone made up. They/We created an unstoppable beast. They thought that China would be like India or Vietnam or so. Nope. You name it, they build it. We can only "regulate" it - see what Europe has come up with to justify it - with the CO2 nonsense, "human rights" and all that. More regulations are the only way to prevent to get your market over flooded by products that you can't possibly build at that speed and cost (and not necessarily quality, but finally, most of what we use come from there and aren't MacBooks good? or fridges/TVs/phones, etc).
    • maxdo 1y ago
      That’s a myth. Yes, we allow them to move faster—much faster—but it’s simply because their government is more efficient. Western society, in contrast, runs on a kind of religion. People follow a few belief systems: socialism, right-wing conservatism, and perhaps liberalism as a softer sub-flavor. Here’s the fun part: China learned the hard way that no single dogma—whether communism or anything else—is worth worshiping if it leaves people hungry. They’ve mixed communism, socialism, and raw capitalism, using whatever tools best serve their progress. Ruthless goal achievement. Meanwhile, Western society has turned the left-versus-right divide into something resembling the conflict between major branches of Islam—where factions despise and fight each other. It’s extremely foolish. It's soolish, like any blind reglion following. And yeah, with this divide we have, we all become religios == stupid.
      • mk89 1y ago
        It's not a myth - China wouldn't be in this situation without Nike/etc. going there in the 80's to "reduce" costs (to actually increase their profits). That triggered the whole chain. They thought they could just jump ship when the prices would increase, but what they didn't expect was that they had a guy that instead of getting just fatter and fatter (like many leaders in the world who finally become corrupt etc) actually had a vision for his country, and it's working out. It's the best implementation of the boiling frog metaphor. About the rest of the post - I would say it's a bit more complicated than just black or white.
• itopaloglu83 1y ago
  Everybody is a fan of free access and capital markets, until a foreign entity purchases something of importance. It’s a continuation of recent trends and closing markets. Nobody in their sane mind would allow a company like ASML or the likes to be purchased by competitors. But the irony is that when a non-European entity were to do something like this, e.g. nationalize their oil or mining etc. industry or a firm, the whole hell would brake loose.
  • bdangubic 1y ago
    USA is nationalizng Intel and under this administration more of the commie shit is coming :)
    • kapone 1y ago
      [flagged]
      • bdangubic 1y ago
        :)
    • gerash 1y ago
      The argument I have heard about the US taking 20% stake in Intel is that when a company asks for federal money then it’s only fair if the federal government gets some equity in return. You can’t socialize losses and privatize gains.
      • itopaloglu83 1y ago
        > You can’t socialize losses and privatize gains. Yes, yes, and yes. We kept doing this, a bank or company stretches too much after making record profits, and then cries for federal funding and free money. The federal reserve is a lender of last resort and they shouldn’t have given that much money without any collateral etc. Even if they just kept the stock and then sold it afterwards, we wouldn’t be in this much debt. We spend trillions covering private losses, this was plain stupid.
• 1oooqooq 1y ago
  thanks for the context. any idea what we the rationale/reason to pass that law in the first place? any specific endangered war resource at the time?
• emmelaich 1y ago
  It's a bit pathetic that European countries do not have the tech capacity to compete equally without having to do stuff like this. (Not saying China is playing fair btw, just saying there's a vast amount of underused intellectual resources in Europe.)
  • Doxin 1y ago
    You do realize this is china trying to abscond with European tech? Not the other way around?
• WhyNotHugo 1y ago
  The Goods Availability Act invoked in this case, grants power to requisition goods in case of emergency situations, and owners must be compensated. What I don't see in the official announcement is the nature of the emergency in this case. Ref: https://wetten.overheid.nl/BWBR0002098/2021-07-01/ https://wetten.overheid.nl/BWBR0002098/2021-07-01/
• mmarq 1y ago
  We have a similar law in Italy, but, not having much advanced technology foreigners are willing to buy, the government uses it to prevent foreigners from buying washing machine manufacturers.
• trymas 1y ago
  > "knowledge leak" (w/e that means exactly) At least in my tongue - this would mean “brain drain”.
  • jacquesm 1y ago
    More likely: IP drain. IP was specifically mentioned in the complaint.
• bpye 1y ago
  This seems similar to the UK government taking control, though not ownership, of British Steel earlier in the year [0] as the Chinese owner was expected to shut down their blast furnaces, an action that could not be easily reversed - if possible at all. One difference is that the UK government rushed through new legislation [1] to allow this, vs the Dutch government using powers they have had for decades. [0] https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5y66y40kgpo https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5y66y40kgpo [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steel_Industry_(Special_Measures)_Act_2025 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steel_Industry_(Special_Measur...
  • karlitooo 1y ago
    Get control of foreign company with specialist knowledge in a domain you want to dominate, drain its cash and shut it down.
• BartjeD 1y ago
  The company was warned multiple times prior to this happening, to adjust course. They didn't. Now they got into hot water and claim they were unjustly nationalized. They can have their day in an impartial court of law. If they're right they will prevail.
  • pembrook 1y ago
    Warned multiple times over what exactly?
    • BartjeD 1y ago
      See https://tweakers.net/nieuws/240304/nexperia-ceo-bevoordeelde-eigen-bedrijf-en-wilde-europese-bestuurders-ontslaan.html https://tweakers.net/nieuws/240304/nexperia-ceo-bevoordeelde...
• contravariant 1y ago
  I'm also inclined to believe the reason for the decision was intelligence and not politics, because if it was political the parties responsible likely wouldn't shut up about until the next election. As of now there's been effectively 0 reaction from any political party. Though maybe that will change.
  • Doxin 1y ago
    We've also currently got an outgoing cabinet, meaning they aren't really supposed to make major decisions outside of emergencies. That has always been one of those things where it's basically up to the honor of the politicians to actually not make major decisions as far as I can tell, so I'm unsure whether this is politicians politicianing or if there IS some emergency requiring intervention. I'm sure it'll all get more clear in the coming days.
• daan-k 1y ago
  Some new information has just emerged in the Dutch press. According to a just published article by the NRC newspaper [0], the owner wanted to use Nexperia's funds to finance another business (WingSkySemi) which was in financial trouble. He would have done this by making Nexperia place large orders for wafers it did not need. The article mentions Nexperia only requiring $70-80 million in wafers, while Nexperia would have ordered wafers from WingSkySemi with a value of $200 million. In order to achieve this, the owner is said to have put strawmen without financial experience in place and fire European directors. When other directors raised the alarm about this, they were fired according to the article. This issue was raised to the Dutch government, which then intervened. Have a look at the original article through google translate, it provides a lot of interesting and important details to this story. [0] https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2025/10/14/chinese-topman-gebruikte-geld-van-nexperia-voor-zijn-chinese-chipfabriek-a4909538 https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2025/10/14/chinese-topman-gebruikt...
  • scotty79 1y ago
    Seems like business as usual. It's just that the industry it operates in is kinda sensitive subject for everybody right now.
    • Doxin 1y ago
      To be clear the specific intervention used here is very rare. It's really not business as usual, but it's also not nation state shenanigans luckily. Just regular old grift.
      • scotty79 1y ago
        Yeah, the intervention is unusual, but what the companies tried to do is completely common scheming.
    • rcxdude 1y ago
      This is exactly the kind of thing you're not meant to do with a company you don't wholly own (and to some extent with any limited liability company). Part of the deal is that as an executive or majority shareholder the company is not an extension of yourself, it's a seperate entity and when making decisions about it you are meant to act in the interests of that company. This is sadly not well enforced, but it is the kind of thing where shareholders can and will take action. (Musk has been heavily criticised for pulling these kinds of shenanigans between Tesla, SpaceX, and X, but it seems like there are not enough shareholders willing to take him to task for it)
• deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
• Braxton1980 1y ago
  >As much as I think our government is currently ran by a bunch of nincompoops Why do you think this? The Netherlands economy seems be pretty good compared with other countries. Growth is slower but that's partially due to US tariffs. Is it just a standard thing now to say "the government are idiots" or they are making huge mistakes. Don't you think they creates a long term issue where people are never satisfied and constantly electing a new government. Maybe this causes the government to focus on short term wins to avoid that.
• Already__Taken 1y ago
  In my completely uninformed opinion I think China is taking their toys and going home. The UK gov stepped in to stop a Chinese firm closing our steel mill. Capitalism wasn't made to handle large strategic foreign investments closing their own company at nationally inopportune moments. It feels like a slow burn of embrace, extend, extinguish but playing out on global critical technology and industry.