The Dutch government has taken control of Nexperia, a Chinese-owned semiconductor maker based in the Netherlands, in an extraordinary move to ensure a sufficient supply of its chips remains available in Europe amid rising global trade tensions.
Nexperia, a subsidiary of China’s Wingtech Technology, specializes in the high-volume production of chips used in automotive, consumer electronics and other industries, making it vital for maintaining Europe’s technological supply chains.
On Sunday evening, the Dutch Minister of Economic Affairs revealed that it had invoked the “Goods Availability Act” on the company in September in order “to prevent a situation in which the goods produced by Nexperia (finished and semi-finished products) would become unavailable in an emergency.”
What exactly does take control mean? Does Wingtech still formally own Nexperia but has to give up control temporarily? Or is this now straight-up property of the Dutch state? I would have loved more details on what the possibilities are within this act.
thx for posting
It’s a bit vague as the government didn’t publish all details.
AFAICT the principle of this law is that the minister/department involved can override company decisions and issue instructions to those who work for the company in order to ensure customer orders are fulfilled. No actual ownership has changed as such, though this could be a precursor to that, but even though Wingtech still owns Nexperia, it has to obey the government edicts over those of Wingtech.
Original government publication (in Dutch): https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/actueel/nieuws/2025/10/12/wet-beschikbaarheid-goederen-ingezet-door-minister-van-economische-zaken
Wiki article on this law: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goods_Availability_Act_(Netherlands)
In the words of PinkPantheress: “is this illegal? It feels illegal.”
I will make it legal
Dutch government is a proxy of Washington here.
“Dutch government does X”
“It’s them fuckin Americans again”
