Netherlands returns control of Nexperia to Chinese owner

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-11-19/dutch-hand-back-control-of-chinese-owned-chipmaker-nexperia

43•boovic•1h ago

Comments

lysace•1h ago

> The order that gave the Netherlands powers to block or revise decisions at Nexperia was dropped as “a show of goodwill”

Why wouldn't CCP/Beijing just be emboldened by this? Why do the dutch feel the need to show goodwill towards CCP?

(Edit: I see a lot of turbulence with this comment. I wonder why people seem to think it's invalid. The Chinese government runs these strategic companies very closely. China is not a democracy. It is a de facto dictatorship run by the CCP, the Chinese Communist Party. Nothing of this really a controversial opinion.)

RAMJAC•59m ago

$$$

lysace•58m ago

That is almost always the case, but please expand.

RAMJAC•40m ago

Maybe I was being a bit flippant, but I don't buy the "goodwill" argument. It's probably went, and by the article, something like this:

China: Great, two can play this game, how about you now lose access to X,Y,Z that may be manufacturing, fabs, investments, rare earths, Chinese markets, etc.

Netherlands: Hmm, that costs more than this company by an order of magnitude. Take it.

This isn't taking into account back channel dealing, conflicts of interest or really anything besides a surface level reading of situation. They had them by the balls.

tgv•13m ago

Idk. It's hard to hit The Netherlands in particular, since trade is with the EU as a block, not with individual countries.

rikafurude21•48m ago

"show of goodwill" is politician-speak for capitulation. Taking over Nexperia caused a chip shortage for the german auto industry, which was an unintended consequence that they couldnt handle.

cowl•2m ago

a bit tired of auto industry's "just in time" supply managment. they had the same problem when covid closed everything down and now 5 years later they still have not learned that they cant just order "enough for 1-2 months of production" and not more.

Barrin92•12m ago

>Why do the dutch feel the need to show goodwill towards CCP?

They're not showing goodwill, they're desperate. Why did the Netherlands (read the US) think it's in any position to seize a company from China when the entire auto industry is dependent on Chinese chips?

I can't help but laugh at this, as a European even. China unlike our esteemed continent isn't going to have its businesses commandeered around by Washington, we should take a lesson in self-respect from them. It's also not on us to dictate what system of government they run their country on. Thankfully someone isn't putting up with Washington's crap.

mainecoder•50m ago

Well the Chinese are powerful and without the help of the US the Netherlands can't do much. Additionally, the process of moving discrete semiconductor production to China is already underway. Production in Hamburg will stop sometime in late 2029 and the R&D center in Nijmegen, Delft will close done late 2028. The US should have helped the Netherlands but now it is over the Chinese won this battle and fairly easily they did not need to use much of the leverage that they had. The commentary by EU officials shows that they used a top down approach using the EU to pressure the Dutch.

mainecoder•32m ago

Additionally I forgot to mention the withholding of shipments from China of the finished product that served as a public(visible) leverage.

lysace•29m ago

Perhaps something could have been done via the EU. (No, I know, France/Italy/Spain/Germany are way to obsessed with their exports to PRC.)

Been there/done that (Sweden was unjustly bullied by China and got next to no support from EU).

mainecoder•16m ago

What if I told you that China has more influence over the EU than it has over the Kamer der Staten-Generaal( the Dutch parliament), thus they are using the EU to pressure the dutch. The irony is that European Sovereignty is respected when all the countries of Europe are able to make their own sovereignty respected i.e. it is each of the individual states making their own sovereignty respected that actually elevates the sovereignty of Europe, the EU by pressuring, disregarding and relegating the sovereignty of the member states devalues the collective sovereignty of Europe. Additionally adversaries need only focus on having leverage over EU officials and the EU officials will do their bidding for them.

aldrich•2m ago

Are you sure this is right, and if so would you mind sharing a source for this?

According to the Nexperia 2024 annual report [1], they had just committed to _invest_ in the Hamburg site for their WBG/SiC/GaN production lines. Closure of the fab in Nijmegen was actually reported by NXP[2] not Nexperia - different companies.

[1] https://www.nexperia.com/dam/jcr:fc307e7e-e159-482c-b21b-0f9... [2] https://bits-chips.com/article/closure-of-nxps-nijmegen-fab-...

markus_zhang•24m ago

Does it need legislation system to pass this or judges can block this somehow? It’s pay walled so not sure.

stpedgwdgfhgdd•22m ago

Headline should be:

The intervention by the Dutch government at the Nijmegen-based chipmaker Nexperia is being suspended.

damn3849472•16m ago

I must say I feel very vindicated by this. The seizure of control of the company just for appointing a CEO from China (the horror!) never smelled right to me, but everyone in the previous comment section on this tried to rationalize it with "There must be some legitimate national security reason for the Dutch to do this". Clearly not much of a threat for them to cave so quickly!

Okkef•12m ago

Found the Chinese bot!

It was not because he was from China. It was because he was directing funds to a Chinese company which did not make any business sense and leaking all kinds of intellectual property to China.

The Dutch move was dumb due to international power differences. The reasons to intercede were sound.

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