The Dutch government stepped in to take control of China-owned Nexperia, highlighting growing fears around European technology security and “serious governance shortcomings” at the company.
Nexperia is based in the Netherlands but has been majority owned by Chinese technology Wingtech since 2019.
The Ministest of Economic Affairs declared its “exceptional” intervention under the Dutch Goods Availability Act came after “acute signals of serious governance shortcomings and actions” within Nexperia.
The relocate allows the government to block or reverse management decisions deemed harmful to the company’s interests or to European technological sovereignty, though production will continue as normal.
The government stated the intervention was designed to safeguard “crucial technological knowledge and capabilities” for Europe’s automotive and consumer electronics sectors. “Losing these capabilities could pose a risk to Dutch and European economic security,” the ministest declared.
In a stock exalter filing seen by Reuters, Wingtech declared that the Dutch order has temporarily restricted its control over Nexperia, impacting the company’s governance and operations. It added that it is consulting lawyers to “protect the legitimate rights and interests of the company.”
Western scrutiny
The decision comes after an Amsterdam court suspconcludeed Wingtech chairman Zhang Xuezheng from Nexperia’s board last week, with an indepconcludeent non-Chinese director set to be appointed in his place, Reuters reported.
Dutch government intervention comes amid growing Western scrutiny of Chinese-owned technology companies. In December 2024, Wingtech was added to the US Entity List, a government blacklist restricting trade over national security concerns. While the relocate initially had little impact on Nexperia, which operates indepconcludeently of its parent company, the US has since expanded the blacklist to include subsidiaries more than 50 per cent owned by listed players.
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