17 ms·

Dutch government takes control of Chinese-owned chipmaker Nexperia

729 points by piskov 1y ago

Related: https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3328726/chinas-wingtech-says-dutch-court-freezes-control-nexperia-amid-national-security-dispute

Drblessing 1y ago
It's so over. War in a decade.
rickdeckard 1y ago
Would be interested to hear some details on this from someone within Nexperia (or the automotive customers it supplied), if anyone is here on HN That governmental decision was surely not taken lightly, it's a significant move with high risk of increasing geopolitical tension...
- jacquesm 1y ago
  That will not happen. But yes, you are right that this decision was not taken lightly, I've only heard of one other such move in the last 50 years or so. The Chinese propaganda machine is already making lots of waves about how NL is no longer a democracy and how this dings NL reputation abroad. The Dutch have put restrictions on Wingtech to not make certain changes (sale or move of assets, intellectual property, company activities, employees) for a year. That should give you enough to chew on I think (and it is public knowledge). Specifically the IP and assets bits are in focus here, more so because the parent company is on a watchlist. Note that they not only kicked out the CEO - which in itself is an earth shaking move for a company this big - they also took control over the shares.
  - deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
rickdeckard 1y ago
Related, the announcement of the Dutch government: https://www.government.nl/latest/news/2025/10/12/minister-of-economic-affairs-invokes-goods-availability-act https://www.government.nl/latest/news/2025/10/12/minister-of...
rzerowan 1y ago
alt link https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3328726/chinas-wingtech-says-dutch-court-freezes-control-nexperia-amid-national-security-dispute https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3328726/ch...
- dang 1y ago
  Thanks, we'll add that to the toptext as well.
Doxin 1y ago
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 leave the Netherlands and Europe. The ministry stated in a press release[1] that there was a threat of a "knowledge leak" (w/e that means exactly) and a possible threat to the European economy. After this intervention the Dutch government can now stop or reverse decisions within the company. That's only allowed if those decisions are harmful to the interests of the company, or for the future of the company as a Dutch or European business, or to the retaining of this crucial value chain for europe. The company can appeal this decision in court. For context, the law that allows this all to happen was passed in 1952 and has never before been used. As much as I think our government is currently ran by a bunch of nincompoops, I am inclined to believe that something quite significant was about to happen for this law to get invoked. What exactly that was can for now only be speculated about. I can recommend you run google translate (or equivalent) on the press release. It's as close as you can get to the source of this news for now. I can only imagine the government is going to be having plenty of debates on the topic coming up, seeing as this is a very rare use of a very heavy-handed tool. [0] https://nos.nl/artikel/2586270-kabinet-grijpt-hard-in-bij-chipfabrikant-nexperia https://nos.nl/artikel/2586270-kabinet-grijpt-hard-in-bij-ch... [1] https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/actueel/nieuws/2025/10/12/wet-beschikbaarheid-goederen-ingezet-door-minister-van-economische-zaken https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/actueel/nieuws/2025/10/12/wet-b...
- 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.
piskov 1y ago
> extraordinary move to ensure a sufficient supply of its chips remains available in Europe amid rising global trade tensions. It’s like they beg China to do something with Taiwan.
piskov 1y ago
Also real kicker from 2022: The UK used its National Security & Investment Act (2021) to order divestment of Nexperia’s Newport Wafer Fab in Nov 2022. The UK ordered them to sell 86% of the stake due to National Security concerns https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/acquisition-of-newport-wafer-fab-by-nexperia-bv-notice-of-final-order https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/acquisition-of-ne...
- masfuerte 1y ago
  There was also some drama around British Steel back in April with the government seizing control from China: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckg17g39x41o https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckg17g39x41o
  - lawlessone 1y ago
    afaik there was the added danger there that if the blast furnaces are turned off its very difficult /impossible to start them again.
metalman 1y ago
[flagged]
- barrenko 1y ago
  Read the article.
- heavyset_go 1y ago
  It's just capitalism
  - tirant 1y ago
    This has nothing to do with capitalism. This is pure government intervention in a global market where other competing governments (China) are extremely interventionist already. Capitalism != Free Market
    - Muromec 1y ago
      Free market is for the times when you keep winning, once you start losing, it's time to protect national security (tm).
    - heavyset_go 1y ago
      It's just capitalist governments doing capitalist things like the bidding of the owner class, as they've always done. There's never been a time that capitalist states didn't appropriate property from one party in order to give it to the wealthy. Calling this "clepto capitalism" is a distinction without meaning.
brazukadev 1y ago
This excuse could be used by many countries to seize European companies controlling strategic national resources
- justinclift 1y ago
  And it might even be valid too.
- octo888 1y ago
  Let's hope so
- jsiepkes 1y ago
  Let's be real here, a European company wouldn't even have been allowed to buy a Chinese company in China and have the level of control as in this case in the first place.
  - tartoran 1y ago
    This is it pretty much, not sure why it took so long to come to this realization. Was it greed that caused a warp in rational and common sense?
    - q3k 1y ago
      Just the religious belief that The Free Market will solve everything on its own and there should be no attempt to interfere with it.
      - jaccola 1y ago
        I never understood this, I believe very strongly in the free market, but only where there is a free market. Of course you can let the free market run free up to the border of e.g. the US but surely it won't solve international trade since many countries do not have a free market. Unless we agree some international rules such that the boundary of the free market "sandbox" becomes the earths borders. It's why I also think it is possible to hold a pro-free-market pro-tariff position simultaneously without contradiction. Tariffs could be used to "level set" manipulation from foreign governments and make the incoming goods behave as if they were not manipulated (thus also reducing the incentive to manipulate in the first place). Not sure this is how tariffs are being used in reality.
grues-dinner 1y ago
Sell your industry to private equity, this is what happens. Someone who values it will take it up. Many such cases.
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
isaacremuant 1y ago
It's ok. It's fine when the EU does it. It's only wrong and against capitalism when others do it. Like protectionism.
- saubeidl 1y ago
  Why is "against capitalism" == wrong? Maybe it's right because it's against capitalism.
  - isaacremuant 1y ago
    [flagged]
    - Fraterkes 1y ago
      How do you know the person you are replying to is applying it selectively?
- VagabundoP 1y ago
  I think its fine to have national and strategic interests. China isn't someone that you can just trust, they are exporting to Russia on the sly and therefore supporting war in Europe because it suits them.
  - isaacremuant 1y ago
    [flagged]
    - seanw444 1y ago
      Quite simple, really: our way of doing things is better, and therefore it's better when we do it.
  - dylan604 1y ago
    > they are exporting to Russia on the sly is it really on the sly though?
constantcrying 1y ago
Great. Absolutely outstanding from the Dutch government, to not let China dominate Europe however it wants. Securing a Chip industry independent from China, Taiwan and the US has to be the top long term security interest. I only hope that the EU can use it's power to make things like this more feasible and to keep Europe independent from US/Chinese interests.
- thewebguyd 1y ago
  > Great. Absolutely outstanding from the Dutch government, to not let China dominate Europe however it wants. Arguably the time to do that was in 2018, they could have blocked Nexperia from being aquired by Wingtech in the first place. But I supposed the second best time is now.
- bgnn 1y ago
  The same government forced NXP to sell its RF power division to Chinese JAC in 2015 due to NXP and Freescale merger. Isn't that great?
  - constantcrying 1y ago
    Firstly, that wasn't "the same government". Secondly, better course correct now than never.
- filloooo 1y ago
  Hope you would be as excited when other countries start to follow the lead.
  - constantcrying 1y ago
    Of course. Securing Europes independence is extremely important, other countries should follow and seize more Chinese assets.
binarymax 1y ago
I'm currently blazing through "Chip War" and can't put it down. This news is fascinating in that context. I highly recommend the book to anyone who hasn't read it.
- hermitcrab 1y ago
  I read it recently. I thought it was going to be a bit dry and heavy going. But it was a really good read. TIL Shockley, one of the original pioneers of semi-conductors and Nobel prize winner, was a total shit. His staff hated him so much that the key players left and started a new company (Fairchild). He later became a eugenics crank. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shockley https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shockley
- meekaaku 1y ago
  Also highly recommend Apple In China
rdl 1y ago
I don't understand why this suddenly happened (except if asked by the USG in response to the recent scare/reality over rare earths). The 50% ownership by a sanctioned entity was a reality for a while, and was an issue as soon as the purchase. This didn't change recently. So, this action should have been part of the pre-purchase review (CFIUS in the US...I assume there is an equivalent in China). On the face of it, this all could have been avoided by having a non-sanctioned entity (including another random Chinese company) own enough of the company to get sanctioned entity ownership below 50%.
- tnt128 1y ago
  Negotiation leverage. Had they prevent the purchase in the first place, they won’t have anythings to negotiate now.
  - markus_zhang 1y ago
    Probably the case. The Chinese probably knew about this too and willingly came forward.
- bsder 1y ago
  > I don't understand why this suddenly happened I could easily see Nexperia chips appearing in Russian munitions in Ukraine setting this off. It would also match charging the CEO with "incompetence". It would be pretty easy to win that in court if the chips are appearing in Russian weaponry.
- throwaway-0001 1y ago
  Us placed parent company Wingtech on US Entity List before. Then us probably forced Netherlands to do this. China bans rare earths, us forces eu to be against China. So I’d expect more escalations from China.
  - thomasdeleeuw 1y ago
    Definitely US pressure. NL is always eager to get on the good side of the US, even if they get nothing in return. For example participation in the war in Iraq and Afghanistan and Gaza today.
markus_zhang 1y ago
Time to quote one of my favourite lines in the Godfather franchise. Probably totally unrelated. “We gladly put you at the helm of our little fleet, but our ships must all sail in the same direction. Otherwise, who can say how long your stay with us will last. It's not personal, it's only business. You should know, Godfather” — The late venerable Don Lucchesi
- dcrazy 1y ago
  I couldn’t place this quote, so I googled it and learned it’s from Godfather Part 3. Bold choice to take your favorite quote from that particular movie. :)
  - mmaunder 1y ago
    Oh lord no. Pacino’s Scream made acting history and is of the finest scenes to come out of the Strasberg acting ecosystem. Critics gonna crit, but there are some remarkably good things about that film.
    - markus_zhang 1y ago
      Godfather 3 is actually my favorite Godfather movie. It detours from the mafia line of story and instead dives into the darker maelstrom of high politics. It is from this movie that I learned about Michele Sindona, about Propaganda Due, and in large gained an undying interest in Cold War and geopolitics. Of course I'm just an amateur who only knows English, Mandarin and a bit of French (for Cold War study I'd say all major EU languages are important), and too much source material was buried in history, awaiting for all relevant parties to die so that it has a chance to go into daylight again.
  - markus_zhang 1y ago
    Yeah there are so many memorable quotes.
Luker88 1y ago
I don't know if something similar was feared, but I would like to remind people of what happened in 2020 with China and ARM. You don't get into the China market without losing control.
- like_any_other 1y ago
  It must have slipped by me at the time - what happened with China and ARM?
  - devnullbrain 1y ago
    The Arm China CEO went rogue and spun it off as its own company. ARM HQ were unable to fire him, as he had physical possession of the company's seal stamp. Reading between the lines, the Chinese government chose not to intervene for multiple years.
    - contrarian1234 1y ago
      This stuff constantly happens to foreigners in China and just seems to be mostly due to having bad local legal teams. If your CEO can run off with the company stamps and screw you over.. then it just sounds like amateur hour and you have no idea what you're doing. The legal system there is fundamentally very bureaucratic - there are rules, but they're very different from the West. You need local help - and a lot of it. You see similar bureaucratic insanity in Japan, though I'm guessing there is just a lot more legal infrastructure for guiding foreign companies there.
      - mk89 1y ago
        So you're saying that ARM just went there to open an office without knowing what they're doing? We're talking about the same ARM...?
      - devnullbrain 1y ago
        If it’s constantly happening, does that sound like an attractive market to work in? I’m very open to the idea of companies screwing up, but day-to-day operations shouldn’t look Kafkaesque.
jauntywundrkind 1y ago
Nexperia makes quite a line-up of parts. Huge range of pretty low level things, various logic and bus small devices, mountains of transistors. https://www.mouser.com/manufacturer/nexperia/featured-products/ https://www.mouser.com/manufacturer/nexperia/featured-produc... They have a not huge but very nice line-up of GaN fet devices too. I'd been looking through their line-up here just lack week! Just fun to see what's on offer here. I couldn't find a latest listings by manufacturer for Nexperia, which is one of my favorite Mouser views.
- Iulioh 1y ago
  From my experience it's a lot of automotive stuff
h45gJaqk 1y ago
The timing is weird, just after Trump's latest escalation with China. Using The Netherlands to fall into the sword would fit with the general tactics of dumping the Ukraine war on the EU and trying to sour their relations with China. That way, the U.S. is free to control all oil resources in the Middle East and conquer new ones in Venezuela. The EU gets nothing but enemies and higher oil and gas prices. In principle I'm against outsourcing or technology transfers to China, but please do it on you own schedule.
- Denvercoder9 1y ago
  > The timing is weird, just after Trump's latest escalation with China. The news is coming out now, but it actually happened September 30th.
- jacquesm 1y ago
  Correlation != causation.
- chrisco255 1y ago
  > In principle I'm against outsourcing or technology transfers to China, but please do it on you own schedule. In principle, the tit for tat policy with China should have been initiated 15 years ago. China has restricted its own markets in similar ways since at least that far back, and it was clear then, when they banned Google in 2010, that they were not playing by the same playbook as we were. The U.S. doesn't control oil in the Middle East, that would be Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Iran, etc, all sovereign nations with their own governments. It also produces more domestically than its own demand and is a net exporter of oil. Also, not sure why the Ukraine war is the United States responsibility over the EU's responsibility given that its your next-door neighbor and its your eastern flank that would suffer if Ukraine were to fall to Russian control. EU, of course, partly responsible for enriching Russia to the point where it can afford such a war with its own purchases of gas while shuttering nuclear power plants for indescribable reasons.
  - vachina 1y ago
    Ukraine-Russian conflict is a result of US instigation. Totally their responsibility.
misiek08 1y ago
50 years of sending all the knowledge to China and now sudden realization that „data is the value”. Work was cheap, but we paid in IP and tech as a whole. It’s great to see how long term is China strategy and how well they execute it. Good luck for us all being „independent”. We can make processors out of attached plastic bottle caps…
- brazukadev 1y ago
  It is funny that there are more people blaming China than the shareholders that made trillions of dollars.
  - deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
  - curseofcasandra 1y ago
    Easier to blame a foreign villain than to hold the shareholder class accountable.
  - mns 1y ago
    I don't think people are blaming China. You can see this from all the extremist movements in Europe. People are blaming politicians and the "elite". They gave away for free all the technological advancements and knowledge to China to make huge profits and become filthy rich, and now they complaining that no one is buying their expensive outdated cars and other goods that people can't afford because they don't have decent jobs any more and the economy is bad. The only goal with outsourcing everything to China was to make as much money as possible for themselves, with no regard for the future and how this will affect our economies in the long run, but that doesn't matter when you are rich, for now.
    - brazukadev 1y ago
      What do you mean by the "elite"? By the way you put it, it looks like the people that got filthy rich with this schema were the politicians but we all know they are just foot soldiers of the corporations.
bgnn 1y ago
A bit of history: Nexperia was formed because back in 2017 (if I remember correctly) Qualcomm wanted to buy NXP. So NXP wanted to look more attractive to Qualcomm shareholders and sold its more low-tech business unit to Chinese investors. That acquisition didn't go through because of the tensions between US and China during the first Trump admin. NXP has been trimming fat since its formation from Philips Semiconductors and American or Chinese companies are buying whatever business unit they can grab. They pretty much buy it for the IP and the customers. Once they get the IP they usually fore the whole team and shut dient operations in NL. Nexperia wasn't doing this though. They had no interesting technology to steal oe transfer to China to begin with.
- user_7832 1y ago
  > NXP has been trimming fat since its formation from Philips Semiconductors Honestly it appears to me that Philips themselves have just been losing talent/marketshare/I'm not even sure what, causing their gradual decline. The Philips I grew up with was an electronics powerhouse. Today apart, from their healthcare department (and maybe their slightly overpriced lighting department via Signifify), they don't seem to be very "active", and that makes me sad.
  - skrebbel 1y ago
    This has been going on for decades. I once did a brief consulting stint at what was then considered one of the most innovative, startuppy departments of Philips Healthcare, and it was by far the slowest-moving, least productive software team I've ever seen. They had just "ended a sprint" when I came in, and 3 months later they still hadn't started another. People were just fooling around. There was a rule that talking about work during lunch was a no-no (so we talked about hockey and babies, the only subjects that 2+ people had in common). Testers were a separate team, and they refused to test things, no matter how small, without being allocated months of dedicated time to first make a detailed 50-page docx "test scenario". The mini product I was assigned to work on took 3 months to complete but the 5-page spec had been argued over for the past 18 months and signed off by, in total, 8 managers and 6 directors. I was the only person shipping anything of actual business value during that period (not because I'm so great, just because I was the only one asked to do anything of business value). This is now a decade and a half ago. With the series of number-crunching Excel MBAs leading Philips since then I quite doubt that this will have changed for the better.
derelicta 1y ago
Okay. Now do that for most major Dutch companies please.
tonyhart7 1y ago
so is the company that taken over gonna get compensated or its just nation takeover for free????
- potato3732842 1y ago
  Even if they get compensated when the .gov buys your stuff it's never a fair price.
- gitaarik 1y ago
  They are not being taken over. The Dutch government says it can now reverse or hold back decisions made within the company if they are deemed damaging to the Dutch or European production. I assume the law is written in a way that allows the government to only intervene if it is for such things. A judge would ultimately decide whether it is, if it gets to that point.
dhx 1y ago
Europe's projected semiconductor manufacturing equipment expenditure from 2026-2028 is a rounding error. Global expenditure on 300mm fab equipment from 2026-2028 is predicted to be USD$374bn with regional breakdown as follows (totaling 100%): China - USD$95bn (25%) South Korea - USD$86bn (23%) Taiwan - USD$75bn (20%) Americas - USD$60bn (16%) Japan - USD$32bn (9%) Europe and Middle East - USD$14bn (4%) Southeast Asia - USD$12bn (3%) [1] https://www.semi.org/en/semi-press-release/semi-reports-global-300mm-fab-equipment-spending-expected-to-total-374-billion-dollars-over-next-three-years https://www.semi.org/en/semi-press-release/semi-reports-glob...
- motoboi 1y ago
  yeah, but those machines are built in Europe. Most in Netherlands to be exact, but Holand too.
  - 55873445216111 1y ago
    Netherlands AND Holland? Isn't that the same place? Also: Even while ASML steppers are built in Netherlands, there are a lot of other non-photolithography tools needed to build a fab in addition to the ASML tools.
    - magicalhippo 1y ago
      > Netherlands AND Holland? Isn't that the same place? Holland is part of the Netherlands. Not unlike how say Texas is part of the United States. So in that regard the statement was redundant, yes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holland https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holland
      - vincentkriek 1y ago
        And ASML is not in Holland, nor is Nexperia or ASMI. I can't think of any semiconductor business in "Holland".
        deleted 1y ago
throwaway091 1y ago
Expect more of this to come, it's an unstated goal of the Chinese Communist Party to deindustrialize the West, the UK had to intervene too a few months ago to stop them from destroying their steel producing capacity.
- VerminOctopus1 1y ago
  The west is doing a fine job at deindustrializing all by itself.
- mk89 1y ago
  Well, when you read things like this [0] you wonder if they have not reached it yet? I mean, they are producers and sellers now. [0]: https://www.bundeskartellamt.de/SharedDocs/Meldung/EN/Pressemitteilungen/2025/09_18_2025_CECONOMY_JD.com.html https://www.bundeskartellamt.de/SharedDocs/Meldung/EN/Presse...
barnabyjones 1y ago
I'm not seeing any mention of the Entity List ITT, which seems like the real reason. Via SCMP: >Some analysts said the move by the Dutch ministry resulted from a new rule issued by the US Bureau of Industry and Security, the agency responsible for export control policies. The rule, effective September 29, imposed new restrictions on entities which are at least 50 per cent owned by enterprises on the Entity List or the Military End-User List – two blacklists issued by the US government.
gitaarik 1y ago
The title is misleading. The Dutch government says it can now reverse or hold back decisions made within the company if they are deemed damaging to the Dutch or European production. I assume the law is written in a way that allows the government to only intervene if it is for such things. A judge would ultimately decide whether it is, if it gets to that point. I wouldn't call that "taking control" necessarily. Taking "some" control maybe. But in a reasonable way.
- mk89 1y ago
  > Wingtech Chairman Zhang Xuezheng had been immediately suspended from his roles as executive director of Nexperia Holdings and nonexecutive director of Nexperia after the ministerial order, according to the filing. Not sure what firing the boss is, if not taking control...
  - bux93 1y ago
    Firing a company's boss and appointing a trustee is uncommon, but it happens. E.g. at IT service provider Centric, where the majority owner and CEO had a mental breakdown. Employees suffered from his delusions, but it also threatened to affect customers. The trustees aren't government agents, they just run the business as a going concern, minus the mismanagement (in this case, minus the mental illness). US law also provides for a CEO to be ousted and a trustee to be appointed in cases of mismanagement or fraud. I wouldn't call that taking control, in much the same way as bankruptcy proceedings appointing a trustee don't amount to government taking control. Now, the article refers to a filing made by former management. That filing is conflating the order and the firing of the CEO. The ministerial order didn't fire the CEO, that was a separate action filed by the company's works council and happened before the order was issued. The reason for the firing lies mostly in mismanagement and conflicts of interest. The ministerial order is much more limited in scope, allowing the government to roll back decisions detrimental to the company - especially transfers of assets. It's a shame that CNBC is just parroting the former management's objections, rather than you know, doing any reporting. In both the order and the legal case, it's clear the ownership/management wanted to shut down the company and take the assets. The company was also not doing OK financially, and this kind of thing reeks of bankruptcy fraud (i.e. fraudulent conveyance). The kind of tech nexperia makes isn't rocket science but I could imagine they produce some chips that are used in essential supply chains. So rather than wait for the bankruptcy and the fraud to happen, the company was restricted from transferring assets. So the wording "takes control" is misleading. "subjected to additional oversight" is perhaps too wordy but more accurate. "put on a leash" might be a good way of putting it.
Surac 1y ago
I smell a loose loose situation ahead. Nexperia will have problems sourcing there materials in the future and Europe will sit on a husk of the former company. China is not unheard of starving things they do not benefit from
amai 1y ago
As long as western companies cannot freely buy companies in China the reverse shouldn't be possible, too. Business with dictatorships must stop as soon as possible. In fact it should be forbidden. Nothing good comes out of that. I hope we will see more moves like this from democratic governments.
- crossroadsguy 1y ago
  You do realise USA is not the sole beneficiary of global destabilisations and installing of puppet regimes and overthrowing, et cetera. The West in general has been. USA, as the tip of the spear, is seen first, if not as the tip of the iceberg :) So you see, such businesses have been quite fruitful for the resources the West has gulped over the years.
- flumpcakes 1y ago
  I agree with you, unfortunately the west does a lot of business with dictatorships as they are oil rich or China.
- mtrovo 1y ago
  While I share the sentiment expressed, I highly doubt the general public would be as supportive if the roles were reversed, like if a 3rd world country attempted to nationalize an investment from a Western nation, particularly given the history of numerous nationalization attempts in Latin America with very public Western involvement in coups.
  - ragebol 1y ago
    They're not nationalizing though
  - quitit 1y ago
    I think they're difficult to compare. The western companies aren't using the business as a strategic tool to destabilise the host country. While nationalising something like an oil company is only about changing where profits are sent.
hvb2 1y ago
China is now exposing export restrictions so anything made in china can no longer be exported https://nos.nl/artikel/2586411-china-legt-chipfabrikant-nexperia-exportverbod-op-na-ingrijpen-nederland https://nos.nl/artikel/2586411-china-legt-chipfabrikant-nexp...
d_taylor 1y ago
Free market is like a luxury restaurant, everyone loves to eat there, but not everyone wants to pay the bill.
eneas 1y ago
What do yo think is the product or tehcnology that Nexperia can leak to China and forced uncle Same to leverage ASML control of Netherlands? The manufacucture aparently analog electronics a it was divested from NXP.
rzerowan 1y ago
Update from the Amsterdam Court of appeal[0] , as expected large amount of pressure from the USG as well as some pressure on the CEO after the latest US 50% rule that triggered the RE restictions. - US telling Nexperia to ditch its Chinese leadership if it wants a waiver from the entity list. - The NL gov putting pressure on the CEO to introduce a new supervisory board to make sure there are no links to China. A lot more corporate shenanigans within the complaint/appeal but the two biggies seem to be the US 50% trigger and NL gov board request. [0]https://uitspraken.rechtspraak.nl/details?id=ECLI:NL:GHAMS:2025:2752 https://uitspraken.rechtspraak.nl/details?id=ECLI:NL:GHAMS:2...
- femiagbabiaka 1y ago
  [flagged]
  - kome 1y ago
    [flagged]
    - touristtam 1y ago
      Erm - there is such thing as the concept of strategical industries. And it is neither a European thing or a modern thing either, but don't let that stop you from spouting a narrative where Europe is the bad guy in an international landscape where they have transferred voluntarily or not such much technology to China.
      - paganel 1y ago
        Almost everything can be seen as strategic.
        notmyjob 1y ago
        That’s a rather weak retort. Certain things like uranium and pharmaceuticals are pretty obviously strategic while other things like dog food are not.
clarionbell 1y ago
Reading this discussion, I can't help but feel a somewhat odd narrative: "This is hypocrisy! How dare they do to chinese what they criticize chinese for?" Followed by: "They always did that. The west was always trying to subvert rules they didn't like!" And finally: "The west made these rules to work for them and them only!" That repeats in various variations, over and over. Here is my take. The only conclusion from this, is that everyone was dishonest, everyone is dishonest, and we should stop trying to even pretend that we could be more honest. All wrongs are equal, there is no difference between a dictator and inept president. There is no difference in intent, purpose or long term goal. Freedom is just a word, it doesn't exist. Truth is abstract concept, without meaning. I don't know about you, but I don't think I can subscribe to that. Instead, I would side with NL government on this. Because there is such a thing as lesser evil. Call me a hypocrite, if you'd like, but at least I'm consistent.
Mr_Minderbinder 1y ago
> ...according to a Google translation. Can they really not be bothered to hire human translators? You would expect as much from a high profile news source like CNBC.
- kragen 1y ago
  Maybe it's not a cost thing but a speed thing. You don't want to get scooped by another English-language news source.
FrustratedMonky 1y ago
Intel? The US is also making moves to protect/control supply chains. However different countries do it, there is a realization that some industries have a strategic impact.
ArnoVW 1y ago
update on NRC (Dutch newspaper), based on pieces that have been submitted to the courts 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... The Chinese CEO of Nexperia, Wing, tried to divert company funds to finance his own chip factory, WingSkySemi, appointing straw men to key positions and firing European executives, which led to a major internal conflict.
newsclues 1y ago
https://www.thebureau.news/p/chinese-ceo-fired-european-executives https://www.thebureau.news/p/chinese-ceo-fired-european-exec... Sam Cooper is the Canadian journalist who has tackled Chinese corruption in Canada after the Vancouver model of money laundering in Vancouver became notorious.
stackedinserter 1y ago
There should be nothing China-owned in Western countries.
djoldman 1y ago
I've often wondered about where the lines would be for a similar issue in the USA: > CFIUS oversees transactions that might give foreign entities control of U.S. businesses. This includes mergers, acquisitions, or takeovers. It also reviews investments in critical technologies, infrastructure, sensitive data, and specific real estate deals. At CFIUS' recommendation, the President may suspend or prohibit transactions deemed threatening to U.S. national security.[0] If a US company is blocked from being acquired, presumably the CFIUS considers the company to be "nationally strategic." In an unlikely hypothetical, I'm curious what the US would try to do in this scenario: 1. US company A agrees to be acquired by foreign company B. 2. CFIUS recommends blocking the acquisition under nation security grounds and the US president executes the block. 3a. US company A threatens to shut down all operations if the block is not lifted. 3b. US company A immediately destroys all assets irrevocably in spite. In 3a, my guess is that the US would cook up or find some legal scheme to take over the company. In 3b, the US has no warning and the company succeeds in denying the US something the US considers a strategic asset, although to its demise. It reminds me of the Invention Secrecy Act. In a nation that holds private property to be more sacrosanct than most nations, it's super interesting when the the government forcibly takes property. Things like eminent domain never feel natural in the US. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Committee_on_Foreign_Investment_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Committee_on_Foreign_Investmen... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invention_Secrecy_Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invention_Secrecy_Act
singularity2001 1y ago
Can we take back Kuka and Abb as well please?
- goobatrooba 1y ago
  Kuka must be one of the three biggest strategic mistake the German governments made in 30 years (the other being gas dependence/NorthStream and keeping coal running rather than investing the same funds in renewables). Really sad but irreversible as they are now fundamental to the Chinese economy and any knowledge and parents are long gone to China.
chrischen 1y ago
Why allow the sale of a nationally important company if they weren't willing to let it go? Seems like eating your cake and having it too.
amelius 1y ago
Can't imagine they did this without the US forcing them.
unit149 1y ago
[dead]
3327 1y ago
[dead]
nikolay 1y ago
The writings on the wall: no sane person should put money in European banks or invest in Europe.
- Palmik 1y ago
  Did you hear about what the US Government is planning with TikTok Inc., the California headquartered company?
- goobatrooba 1y ago
  Government intervenes to stop parent company from milking and killing this local subsidiary. Does seem like a consistent and sound decision that every government (should/would) have taken. For me a clear YES this means a sound regulatory environment that will protect my company and me from abuse.
wj10000 1y ago
It is said that it is because of selling chips to Russia.

729 points by piskov 1y ago

Related: https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3328726/chinas-wingtech-says-dutch-court-freezes-control-nexperia-amid-national-security-dispute

Drblessing 1y ago

It's so over. War in a decade.

rickdeckard 1y ago

Would be interested to hear some details on this from someone within Nexperia (or the automotive customers it supplied), if anyone is here on HN That governmental decision was surely not taken lightly, it's a significant move with high risk of increasing geopolitical tension...

jacquesm 1y ago
That will not happen. But yes, you are right that this decision was not taken lightly, I've only heard of one other such move in the last 50 years or so. The Chinese propaganda machine is already making lots of waves about how NL is no longer a democracy and how this dings NL reputation abroad. The Dutch have put restrictions on Wingtech to not make certain changes (sale or move of assets, intellectual property, company activities, employees) for a year. That should give you enough to chew on I think (and it is public knowledge). Specifically the IP and assets bits are in focus here, more so because the parent company is on a watchlist. Note that they not only kicked out the CEO - which in itself is an earth shaking move for a company this big - they also took control over the shares.
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]

rickdeckard 1y ago

Related, the announcement of the Dutch government: https://www.government.nl/latest/news/2025/10/12/minister-of-economic-affairs-invokes-goods-availability-act https://www.government.nl/latest/news/2025/10/12/minister-of...

rzerowan 1y ago

alt link https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3328726/chinas-wingtech-says-dutch-court-freezes-control-nexperia-amid-national-security-dispute https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3328726/ch...

dang 1y ago
Thanks, we'll add that to the toptext as well.

Doxin 1y ago

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 leave the Netherlands and Europe. The ministry stated in a press release[1] that there was a threat of a "knowledge leak" (w/e that means exactly) and a possible threat to the European economy. After this intervention the Dutch government can now stop or reverse decisions within the company. That's only allowed if those decisions are harmful to the interests of the company, or for the future of the company as a Dutch or European business, or to the retaining of this crucial value chain for europe. The company can appeal this decision in court. For context, the law that allows this all to happen was passed in 1952 and has never before been used. As much as I think our government is currently ran by a bunch of nincompoops, I am inclined to believe that something quite significant was about to happen for this law to get invoked. What exactly that was can for now only be speculated about. I can recommend you run google translate (or equivalent) on the press release. It's as close as you can get to the source of this news for now. I can only imagine the government is going to be having plenty of debates on the topic coming up, seeing as this is a very rare use of a very heavy-handed tool. [0] https://nos.nl/artikel/2586270-kabinet-grijpt-hard-in-bij-chipfabrikant-nexperia https://nos.nl/artikel/2586270-kabinet-grijpt-hard-in-bij-ch... [1] https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/actueel/nieuws/2025/10/12/wet-beschikbaarheid-goederen-ingezet-door-minister-van-economische-zaken https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/actueel/nieuws/2025/10/12/wet-b...

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.

piskov 1y ago

> extraordinary move to ensure a sufficient supply of its chips remains available in Europe amid rising global trade tensions. It’s like they beg China to do something with Taiwan.

piskov 1y ago

Also real kicker from 2022: The UK used its National Security & Investment Act (2021) to order divestment of Nexperia’s Newport Wafer Fab in Nov 2022. The UK ordered them to sell 86% of the stake due to National Security concerns https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/acquisition-of-newport-wafer-fab-by-nexperia-bv-notice-of-final-order https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/acquisition-of-ne...

masfuerte 1y ago
There was also some drama around British Steel back in April with the government seizing control from China: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckg17g39x41o https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckg17g39x41o
- lawlessone 1y ago
  afaik there was the added danger there that if the blast furnaces are turned off its very difficult /impossible to start them again.

metalman 1y ago

[flagged]

barrenko 1y ago
Read the article.
heavyset_go 1y ago
It's just capitalism
- tirant 1y ago
  This has nothing to do with capitalism. This is pure government intervention in a global market where other competing governments (China) are extremely interventionist already. Capitalism != Free Market
  - Muromec 1y ago
    Free market is for the times when you keep winning, once you start losing, it's time to protect national security (tm).
  - heavyset_go 1y ago
    It's just capitalist governments doing capitalist things like the bidding of the owner class, as they've always done. There's never been a time that capitalist states didn't appropriate property from one party in order to give it to the wealthy. Calling this "clepto capitalism" is a distinction without meaning.

brazukadev 1y ago

This excuse could be used by many countries to seize European companies controlling strategic national resources

justinclift 1y ago
And it might even be valid too.
octo888 1y ago
Let's hope so
jsiepkes 1y ago
Let's be real here, a European company wouldn't even have been allowed to buy a Chinese company in China and have the level of control as in this case in the first place.
- tartoran 1y ago
  This is it pretty much, not sure why it took so long to come to this realization. Was it greed that caused a warp in rational and common sense?
  - q3k 1y ago
    Just the religious belief that The Free Market will solve everything on its own and there should be no attempt to interfere with it.
    - jaccola 1y ago
      I never understood this, I believe very strongly in the free market, but only where there is a free market. Of course you can let the free market run free up to the border of e.g. the US but surely it won't solve international trade since many countries do not have a free market. Unless we agree some international rules such that the boundary of the free market "sandbox" becomes the earths borders. It's why I also think it is possible to hold a pro-free-market pro-tariff position simultaneously without contradiction. Tariffs could be used to "level set" manipulation from foreign governments and make the incoming goods behave as if they were not manipulated (thus also reducing the incentive to manipulate in the first place). Not sure this is how tariffs are being used in reality.

grues-dinner 1y ago

Sell your industry to private equity, this is what happens. Someone who values it will take it up. Many such cases.

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]

isaacremuant 1y ago

It's ok. It's fine when the EU does it. It's only wrong and against capitalism when others do it. Like protectionism.

saubeidl 1y ago
Why is "against capitalism" == wrong? Maybe it's right because it's against capitalism.
- isaacremuant 1y ago
  [flagged]
  - Fraterkes 1y ago
    How do you know the person you are replying to is applying it selectively?
VagabundoP 1y ago
I think its fine to have national and strategic interests. China isn't someone that you can just trust, they are exporting to Russia on the sly and therefore supporting war in Europe because it suits them.
- isaacremuant 1y ago
  [flagged]
  - seanw444 1y ago
    Quite simple, really: our way of doing things is better, and therefore it's better when we do it.
- dylan604 1y ago
  > they are exporting to Russia on the sly is it really on the sly though?

constantcrying 1y ago

Great. Absolutely outstanding from the Dutch government, to not let China dominate Europe however it wants. Securing a Chip industry independent from China, Taiwan and the US has to be the top long term security interest. I only hope that the EU can use it's power to make things like this more feasible and to keep Europe independent from US/Chinese interests.

thewebguyd 1y ago
> Great. Absolutely outstanding from the Dutch government, to not let China dominate Europe however it wants. Arguably the time to do that was in 2018, they could have blocked Nexperia from being aquired by Wingtech in the first place. But I supposed the second best time is now.
bgnn 1y ago
The same government forced NXP to sell its RF power division to Chinese JAC in 2015 due to NXP and Freescale merger. Isn't that great?
- constantcrying 1y ago
  Firstly, that wasn't "the same government". Secondly, better course correct now than never.
filloooo 1y ago
Hope you would be as excited when other countries start to follow the lead.
- constantcrying 1y ago
  Of course. Securing Europes independence is extremely important, other countries should follow and seize more Chinese assets.

binarymax 1y ago

I'm currently blazing through "Chip War" and can't put it down. This news is fascinating in that context. I highly recommend the book to anyone who hasn't read it.

hermitcrab 1y ago
I read it recently. I thought it was going to be a bit dry and heavy going. But it was a really good read. TIL Shockley, one of the original pioneers of semi-conductors and Nobel prize winner, was a total shit. His staff hated him so much that the key players left and started a new company (Fairchild). He later became a eugenics crank. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shockley https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shockley
meekaaku 1y ago
Also highly recommend Apple In China

rdl 1y ago

I don't understand why this suddenly happened (except if asked by the USG in response to the recent scare/reality over rare earths). The 50% ownership by a sanctioned entity was a reality for a while, and was an issue as soon as the purchase. This didn't change recently. So, this action should have been part of the pre-purchase review (CFIUS in the US...I assume there is an equivalent in China). On the face of it, this all could have been avoided by having a non-sanctioned entity (including another random Chinese company) own enough of the company to get sanctioned entity ownership below 50%.

tnt128 1y ago
Negotiation leverage. Had they prevent the purchase in the first place, they won’t have anythings to negotiate now.
- markus_zhang 1y ago
  Probably the case. The Chinese probably knew about this too and willingly came forward.
bsder 1y ago
> I don't understand why this suddenly happened I could easily see Nexperia chips appearing in Russian munitions in Ukraine setting this off. It would also match charging the CEO with "incompetence". It would be pretty easy to win that in court if the chips are appearing in Russian weaponry.
throwaway-0001 1y ago
Us placed parent company Wingtech on US Entity List before. Then us probably forced Netherlands to do this. China bans rare earths, us forces eu to be against China. So I’d expect more escalations from China.
- thomasdeleeuw 1y ago
  Definitely US pressure. NL is always eager to get on the good side of the US, even if they get nothing in return. For example participation in the war in Iraq and Afghanistan and Gaza today.

markus_zhang 1y ago

Time to quote one of my favourite lines in the Godfather franchise. Probably totally unrelated. “We gladly put you at the helm of our little fleet, but our ships must all sail in the same direction. Otherwise, who can say how long your stay with us will last. It's not personal, it's only business. You should know, Godfather” — The late venerable Don Lucchesi

dcrazy 1y ago
I couldn’t place this quote, so I googled it and learned it’s from Godfather Part 3. Bold choice to take your favorite quote from that particular movie. :)
- mmaunder 1y ago
  Oh lord no. Pacino’s Scream made acting history and is of the finest scenes to come out of the Strasberg acting ecosystem. Critics gonna crit, but there are some remarkably good things about that film.
  - markus_zhang 1y ago
    Godfather 3 is actually my favorite Godfather movie. It detours from the mafia line of story and instead dives into the darker maelstrom of high politics. It is from this movie that I learned about Michele Sindona, about Propaganda Due, and in large gained an undying interest in Cold War and geopolitics. Of course I'm just an amateur who only knows English, Mandarin and a bit of French (for Cold War study I'd say all major EU languages are important), and too much source material was buried in history, awaiting for all relevant parties to die so that it has a chance to go into daylight again.
- markus_zhang 1y ago
  Yeah there are so many memorable quotes.

Luker88 1y ago

I don't know if something similar was feared, but I would like to remind people of what happened in 2020 with China and ARM. You don't get into the China market without losing control.

like_any_other 1y ago
It must have slipped by me at the time - what happened with China and ARM?
- devnullbrain 1y ago
  The Arm China CEO went rogue and spun it off as its own company. ARM HQ were unable to fire him, as he had physical possession of the company's seal stamp. Reading between the lines, the Chinese government chose not to intervene for multiple years.
  - contrarian1234 1y ago
    This stuff constantly happens to foreigners in China and just seems to be mostly due to having bad local legal teams. If your CEO can run off with the company stamps and screw you over.. then it just sounds like amateur hour and you have no idea what you're doing. The legal system there is fundamentally very bureaucratic - there are rules, but they're very different from the West. You need local help - and a lot of it. You see similar bureaucratic insanity in Japan, though I'm guessing there is just a lot more legal infrastructure for guiding foreign companies there.
    - mk89 1y ago
      So you're saying that ARM just went there to open an office without knowing what they're doing? We're talking about the same ARM...?
    - devnullbrain 1y ago
      If it’s constantly happening, does that sound like an attractive market to work in? I’m very open to the idea of companies screwing up, but day-to-day operations shouldn’t look Kafkaesque.

jauntywundrkind 1y ago

Nexperia makes quite a line-up of parts. Huge range of pretty low level things, various logic and bus small devices, mountains of transistors. https://www.mouser.com/manufacturer/nexperia/featured-products/ https://www.mouser.com/manufacturer/nexperia/featured-produc... They have a not huge but very nice line-up of GaN fet devices too. I'd been looking through their line-up here just lack week! Just fun to see what's on offer here. I couldn't find a latest listings by manufacturer for Nexperia, which is one of my favorite Mouser views.

Iulioh 1y ago
From my experience it's a lot of automotive stuff

h45gJaqk 1y ago

The timing is weird, just after Trump's latest escalation with China. Using The Netherlands to fall into the sword would fit with the general tactics of dumping the Ukraine war on the EU and trying to sour their relations with China. That way, the U.S. is free to control all oil resources in the Middle East and conquer new ones in Venezuela. The EU gets nothing but enemies and higher oil and gas prices. In principle I'm against outsourcing or technology transfers to China, but please do it on you own schedule.

Denvercoder9 1y ago
> The timing is weird, just after Trump's latest escalation with China. The news is coming out now, but it actually happened September 30th.
jacquesm 1y ago
Correlation != causation.
chrisco255 1y ago
> In principle I'm against outsourcing or technology transfers to China, but please do it on you own schedule. In principle, the tit for tat policy with China should have been initiated 15 years ago. China has restricted its own markets in similar ways since at least that far back, and it was clear then, when they banned Google in 2010, that they were not playing by the same playbook as we were. The U.S. doesn't control oil in the Middle East, that would be Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Iran, etc, all sovereign nations with their own governments. It also produces more domestically than its own demand and is a net exporter of oil. Also, not sure why the Ukraine war is the United States responsibility over the EU's responsibility given that its your next-door neighbor and its your eastern flank that would suffer if Ukraine were to fall to Russian control. EU, of course, partly responsible for enriching Russia to the point where it can afford such a war with its own purchases of gas while shuttering nuclear power plants for indescribable reasons.
- vachina 1y ago
  Ukraine-Russian conflict is a result of US instigation. Totally their responsibility.

misiek08 1y ago

50 years of sending all the knowledge to China and now sudden realization that „data is the value”. Work was cheap, but we paid in IP and tech as a whole. It’s great to see how long term is China strategy and how well they execute it. Good luck for us all being „independent”. We can make processors out of attached plastic bottle caps…

brazukadev 1y ago
It is funny that there are more people blaming China than the shareholders that made trillions of dollars.
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
- curseofcasandra 1y ago
  Easier to blame a foreign villain than to hold the shareholder class accountable.
- mns 1y ago
  I don't think people are blaming China. You can see this from all the extremist movements in Europe. People are blaming politicians and the "elite". They gave away for free all the technological advancements and knowledge to China to make huge profits and become filthy rich, and now they complaining that no one is buying their expensive outdated cars and other goods that people can't afford because they don't have decent jobs any more and the economy is bad. The only goal with outsourcing everything to China was to make as much money as possible for themselves, with no regard for the future and how this will affect our economies in the long run, but that doesn't matter when you are rich, for now.
  - brazukadev 1y ago
    What do you mean by the "elite"? By the way you put it, it looks like the people that got filthy rich with this schema were the politicians but we all know they are just foot soldiers of the corporations.

bgnn 1y ago

A bit of history: Nexperia was formed because back in 2017 (if I remember correctly) Qualcomm wanted to buy NXP. So NXP wanted to look more attractive to Qualcomm shareholders and sold its more low-tech business unit to Chinese investors. That acquisition didn't go through because of the tensions between US and China during the first Trump admin. NXP has been trimming fat since its formation from Philips Semiconductors and American or Chinese companies are buying whatever business unit they can grab. They pretty much buy it for the IP and the customers. Once they get the IP they usually fore the whole team and shut dient operations in NL. Nexperia wasn't doing this though. They had no interesting technology to steal oe transfer to China to begin with.

user_7832 1y ago
> NXP has been trimming fat since its formation from Philips Semiconductors Honestly it appears to me that Philips themselves have just been losing talent/marketshare/I'm not even sure what, causing their gradual decline. The Philips I grew up with was an electronics powerhouse. Today apart, from their healthcare department (and maybe their slightly overpriced lighting department via Signifify), they don't seem to be very "active", and that makes me sad.
- skrebbel 1y ago
  This has been going on for decades. I once did a brief consulting stint at what was then considered one of the most innovative, startuppy departments of Philips Healthcare, and it was by far the slowest-moving, least productive software team I've ever seen. They had just "ended a sprint" when I came in, and 3 months later they still hadn't started another. People were just fooling around. There was a rule that talking about work during lunch was a no-no (so we talked about hockey and babies, the only subjects that 2+ people had in common). Testers were a separate team, and they refused to test things, no matter how small, without being allocated months of dedicated time to first make a detailed 50-page docx "test scenario". The mini product I was assigned to work on took 3 months to complete but the 5-page spec had been argued over for the past 18 months and signed off by, in total, 8 managers and 6 directors. I was the only person shipping anything of actual business value during that period (not because I'm so great, just because I was the only one asked to do anything of business value). This is now a decade and a half ago. With the series of number-crunching Excel MBAs leading Philips since then I quite doubt that this will have changed for the better.

derelicta 1y ago

Okay. Now do that for most major Dutch companies please.

tonyhart7 1y ago

so is the company that taken over gonna get compensated or its just nation takeover for free????

potato3732842 1y ago
Even if they get compensated when the .gov buys your stuff it's never a fair price.
gitaarik 1y ago
They are not being taken over. The Dutch government says it can now reverse or hold back decisions made within the company if they are deemed damaging to the Dutch or European production. I assume the law is written in a way that allows the government to only intervene if it is for such things. A judge would ultimately decide whether it is, if it gets to that point.

dhx 1y ago

Europe's projected semiconductor manufacturing equipment expenditure from 2026-2028 is a rounding error. Global expenditure on 300mm fab equipment from 2026-2028 is predicted to be USD$374bn with regional breakdown as follows (totaling 100%): China - USD$95bn (25%) South Korea - USD$86bn (23%) Taiwan - USD$75bn (20%) Americas - USD$60bn (16%) Japan - USD$32bn (9%) Europe and Middle East - USD$14bn (4%) Southeast Asia - USD$12bn (3%) [1] https://www.semi.org/en/semi-press-release/semi-reports-global-300mm-fab-equipment-spending-expected-to-total-374-billion-dollars-over-next-three-years https://www.semi.org/en/semi-press-release/semi-reports-glob...

motoboi 1y ago
yeah, but those machines are built in Europe. Most in Netherlands to be exact, but Holand too.
- 55873445216111 1y ago
  Netherlands AND Holland? Isn't that the same place? Also: Even while ASML steppers are built in Netherlands, there are a lot of other non-photolithography tools needed to build a fab in addition to the ASML tools.
  - magicalhippo 1y ago
    > Netherlands AND Holland? Isn't that the same place? Holland is part of the Netherlands. Not unlike how say Texas is part of the United States. So in that regard the statement was redundant, yes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holland https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holland
    - vincentkriek 1y ago
      And ASML is not in Holland, nor is Nexperia or ASMI. I can't think of any semiconductor business in "Holland".
      - deleted 1y ago

throwaway091 1y ago

Expect more of this to come, it's an unstated goal of the Chinese Communist Party to deindustrialize the West, the UK had to intervene too a few months ago to stop them from destroying their steel producing capacity.

VerminOctopus1 1y ago
The west is doing a fine job at deindustrializing all by itself.
mk89 1y ago
Well, when you read things like this [0] you wonder if they have not reached it yet? I mean, they are producers and sellers now. [0]: https://www.bundeskartellamt.de/SharedDocs/Meldung/EN/Pressemitteilungen/2025/09_18_2025_CECONOMY_JD.com.html https://www.bundeskartellamt.de/SharedDocs/Meldung/EN/Presse...

barnabyjones 1y ago

I'm not seeing any mention of the Entity List ITT, which seems like the real reason. Via SCMP: >Some analysts said the move by the Dutch ministry resulted from a new rule issued by the US Bureau of Industry and Security, the agency responsible for export control policies. The rule, effective September 29, imposed new restrictions on entities which are at least 50 per cent owned by enterprises on the Entity List or the Military End-User List – two blacklists issued by the US government.

gitaarik 1y ago

The title is misleading. The Dutch government says it can now reverse or hold back decisions made within the company if they are deemed damaging to the Dutch or European production. I assume the law is written in a way that allows the government to only intervene if it is for such things. A judge would ultimately decide whether it is, if it gets to that point. I wouldn't call that "taking control" necessarily. Taking "some" control maybe. But in a reasonable way.

mk89 1y ago
> Wingtech Chairman Zhang Xuezheng had been immediately suspended from his roles as executive director of Nexperia Holdings and nonexecutive director of Nexperia after the ministerial order, according to the filing. Not sure what firing the boss is, if not taking control...
- bux93 1y ago
  Firing a company's boss and appointing a trustee is uncommon, but it happens. E.g. at IT service provider Centric, where the majority owner and CEO had a mental breakdown. Employees suffered from his delusions, but it also threatened to affect customers. The trustees aren't government agents, they just run the business as a going concern, minus the mismanagement (in this case, minus the mental illness). US law also provides for a CEO to be ousted and a trustee to be appointed in cases of mismanagement or fraud. I wouldn't call that taking control, in much the same way as bankruptcy proceedings appointing a trustee don't amount to government taking control. Now, the article refers to a filing made by former management. That filing is conflating the order and the firing of the CEO. The ministerial order didn't fire the CEO, that was a separate action filed by the company's works council and happened before the order was issued. The reason for the firing lies mostly in mismanagement and conflicts of interest. The ministerial order is much more limited in scope, allowing the government to roll back decisions detrimental to the company - especially transfers of assets. It's a shame that CNBC is just parroting the former management's objections, rather than you know, doing any reporting. In both the order and the legal case, it's clear the ownership/management wanted to shut down the company and take the assets. The company was also not doing OK financially, and this kind of thing reeks of bankruptcy fraud (i.e. fraudulent conveyance). The kind of tech nexperia makes isn't rocket science but I could imagine they produce some chips that are used in essential supply chains. So rather than wait for the bankruptcy and the fraud to happen, the company was restricted from transferring assets. So the wording "takes control" is misleading. "subjected to additional oversight" is perhaps too wordy but more accurate. "put on a leash" might be a good way of putting it.

Surac 1y ago

I smell a loose loose situation ahead. Nexperia will have problems sourcing there materials in the future and Europe will sit on a husk of the former company. China is not unheard of starving things they do not benefit from

amai 1y ago

As long as western companies cannot freely buy companies in China the reverse shouldn't be possible, too. Business with dictatorships must stop as soon as possible. In fact it should be forbidden. Nothing good comes out of that. I hope we will see more moves like this from democratic governments.

crossroadsguy 1y ago
You do realise USA is not the sole beneficiary of global destabilisations and installing of puppet regimes and overthrowing, et cetera. The West in general has been. USA, as the tip of the spear, is seen first, if not as the tip of the iceberg :) So you see, such businesses have been quite fruitful for the resources the West has gulped over the years.
flumpcakes 1y ago
I agree with you, unfortunately the west does a lot of business with dictatorships as they are oil rich or China.
mtrovo 1y ago
While I share the sentiment expressed, I highly doubt the general public would be as supportive if the roles were reversed, like if a 3rd world country attempted to nationalize an investment from a Western nation, particularly given the history of numerous nationalization attempts in Latin America with very public Western involvement in coups.
- ragebol 1y ago
  They're not nationalizing though
- quitit 1y ago
  I think they're difficult to compare. The western companies aren't using the business as a strategic tool to destabilise the host country. While nationalising something like an oil company is only about changing where profits are sent.

hvb2 1y ago

China is now exposing export restrictions so anything made in china can no longer be exported https://nos.nl/artikel/2586411-china-legt-chipfabrikant-nexperia-exportverbod-op-na-ingrijpen-nederland https://nos.nl/artikel/2586411-china-legt-chipfabrikant-nexp...

d_taylor 1y ago

Free market is like a luxury restaurant, everyone loves to eat there, but not everyone wants to pay the bill.

eneas 1y ago

What do yo think is the product or tehcnology that Nexperia can leak to China and forced uncle Same to leverage ASML control of Netherlands? The manufacucture aparently analog electronics a it was divested from NXP.

rzerowan 1y ago

Update from the Amsterdam Court of appeal[0] , as expected large amount of pressure from the USG as well as some pressure on the CEO after the latest US 50% rule that triggered the RE restictions. - US telling Nexperia to ditch its Chinese leadership if it wants a waiver from the entity list. - The NL gov putting pressure on the CEO to introduce a new supervisory board to make sure there are no links to China. A lot more corporate shenanigans within the complaint/appeal but the two biggies seem to be the US 50% trigger and NL gov board request. [0]https://uitspraken.rechtspraak.nl/details?id=ECLI:NL:GHAMS:2025:2752 https://uitspraken.rechtspraak.nl/details?id=ECLI:NL:GHAMS:2...

femiagbabiaka 1y ago
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- kome 1y ago
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  - touristtam 1y ago
    Erm - there is such thing as the concept of strategical industries. And it is neither a European thing or a modern thing either, but don't let that stop you from spouting a narrative where Europe is the bad guy in an international landscape where they have transferred voluntarily or not such much technology to China.
    - paganel 1y ago
      Almost everything can be seen as strategic.
      - notmyjob 1y ago
        That’s a rather weak retort. Certain things like uranium and pharmaceuticals are pretty obviously strategic while other things like dog food are not.

clarionbell 1y ago

Reading this discussion, I can't help but feel a somewhat odd narrative: "This is hypocrisy! How dare they do to chinese what they criticize chinese for?" Followed by: "They always did that. The west was always trying to subvert rules they didn't like!" And finally: "The west made these rules to work for them and them only!" That repeats in various variations, over and over. Here is my take. The only conclusion from this, is that everyone was dishonest, everyone is dishonest, and we should stop trying to even pretend that we could be more honest. All wrongs are equal, there is no difference between a dictator and inept president. There is no difference in intent, purpose or long term goal. Freedom is just a word, it doesn't exist. Truth is abstract concept, without meaning. I don't know about you, but I don't think I can subscribe to that. Instead, I would side with NL government on this. Because there is such a thing as lesser evil. Call me a hypocrite, if you'd like, but at least I'm consistent.

Mr_Minderbinder 1y ago

> ...according to a Google translation. Can they really not be bothered to hire human translators? You would expect as much from a high profile news source like CNBC.

kragen 1y ago
Maybe it's not a cost thing but a speed thing. You don't want to get scooped by another English-language news source.

FrustratedMonky 1y ago

Intel? The US is also making moves to protect/control supply chains. However different countries do it, there is a realization that some industries have a strategic impact.

ArnoVW 1y ago

update on NRC (Dutch newspaper), based on pieces that have been submitted to the courts 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... The Chinese CEO of Nexperia, Wing, tried to divert company funds to finance his own chip factory, WingSkySemi, appointing straw men to key positions and firing European executives, which led to a major internal conflict.

newsclues 1y ago

https://www.thebureau.news/p/chinese-ceo-fired-european-executives https://www.thebureau.news/p/chinese-ceo-fired-european-exec... Sam Cooper is the Canadian journalist who has tackled Chinese corruption in Canada after the Vancouver model of money laundering in Vancouver became notorious.

stackedinserter 1y ago

There should be nothing China-owned in Western countries.

djoldman 1y ago

I've often wondered about where the lines would be for a similar issue in the USA: > CFIUS oversees transactions that might give foreign entities control of U.S. businesses. This includes mergers, acquisitions, or takeovers. It also reviews investments in critical technologies, infrastructure, sensitive data, and specific real estate deals. At CFIUS' recommendation, the President may suspend or prohibit transactions deemed threatening to U.S. national security.[0] If a US company is blocked from being acquired, presumably the CFIUS considers the company to be "nationally strategic." In an unlikely hypothetical, I'm curious what the US would try to do in this scenario: 1. US company A agrees to be acquired by foreign company B. 2. CFIUS recommends blocking the acquisition under nation security grounds and the US president executes the block. 3a. US company A threatens to shut down all operations if the block is not lifted. 3b. US company A immediately destroys all assets irrevocably in spite. In 3a, my guess is that the US would cook up or find some legal scheme to take over the company. In 3b, the US has no warning and the company succeeds in denying the US something the US considers a strategic asset, although to its demise. It reminds me of the Invention Secrecy Act. In a nation that holds private property to be more sacrosanct than most nations, it's super interesting when the the government forcibly takes property. Things like eminent domain never feel natural in the US. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Committee_on_Foreign_Investment_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Committee_on_Foreign_Investmen... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invention_Secrecy_Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invention_Secrecy_Act

singularity2001 1y ago

Can we take back Kuka and Abb as well please?

goobatrooba 1y ago
Kuka must be one of the three biggest strategic mistake the German governments made in 30 years (the other being gas dependence/NorthStream and keeping coal running rather than investing the same funds in renewables). Really sad but irreversible as they are now fundamental to the Chinese economy and any knowledge and parents are long gone to China.

chrischen 1y ago

Why allow the sale of a nationally important company if they weren't willing to let it go? Seems like eating your cake and having it too.

amelius 1y ago

Can't imagine they did this without the US forcing them.

unit149 1y ago

[dead]

3327 1y ago

[dead]

nikolay 1y ago

The writings on the wall: no sane person should put money in European banks or invest in Europe.

Palmik 1y ago
Did you hear about what the US Government is planning with TikTok Inc., the California headquartered company?
goobatrooba 1y ago
Government intervenes to stop parent company from milking and killing this local subsidiary. Does seem like a consistent and sound decision that every government (should/would) have taken. For me a clear YES this means a sound regulatory environment that will protect my company and me from abuse.

wj10000 1y ago

It is said that it is because of selling chips to Russia.