Wikipedia Deep Dive

Nexperia

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The Chip Company That Became a Geopolitical Flashpoint

In October 2025, the Dutch government did something extraordinary: it seized control of a semiconductor company's governance, citing national security concerns. The company was Nexperia, a manufacturer of the humble electronic components that make modern technology possible. Within weeks, China retaliated by banning Nexperia from exporting products it packages in Chinese facilities—roughly seventy percent of everything Nexperia produces for European markets.

European carmakers suddenly couldn't get the chips they needed.

This is the story of how a company that makes transistors and diodes—components so basic they're often called "discrete semiconductors"—became the center of an international standoff between Washington, Beijing, and Brussels.

What Nexperia Actually Makes

To understand why anyone cares about Nexperia, you first need to understand what discrete semiconductors are. When most people think of computer chips, they imagine the complex processors that power smartphones and laptops—billions of transistors etched onto a sliver of silicon smaller than a fingernail. Those are integrated circuits, and they get all the attention.

Discrete semiconductors are different. They're the supporting cast: individual transistors, diodes, and other basic electronic components that perform simple but essential functions. Think of integrated circuits as the brain of a device, and discrete semiconductors as the nervous system and sensory organs that connect it to the real world.

A diode, for instance, is essentially a one-way valve for electricity—it lets current flow in one direction but blocks it from flowing backward. This sounds trivial until you realize that without diodes, the alternating current from your wall outlet couldn't be converted into the direct current your phone charger needs. Transistors can act as tiny switches or amplifiers. MOSFETs (metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors, a mouthful that engineers mercifully shortened) are specialized transistors that can switch electrical currents on and off billions of times per second while wasting very little energy as heat.

Nexperia makes all of these, along with more specialized components like ESD protection devices (which prevent static electricity from frying your electronics) and TVS diodes (transient voltage suppressor diodes, which absorb sudden voltage spikes that would otherwise damage sensitive circuits).

None of this sounds glamorous. But every car rolling off an assembly line today contains thousands of these discrete components. So does every smartphone, every medical device, every piece of industrial equipment. The entire modern world runs on components that cost pennies but are absolutely essential.

A Corporate Lineage Stretching Back a Century

Nexperia's roots reach deep into European industrial history. The story begins in the 1920s, when the Dutch electronics giant Philips acquired two vacuum tube manufacturers: Mullard in England and Valvo in Germany. Vacuum tubes were the original electronic amplifiers and switches, glowing glass cylinders that powered everything from radios to early computers. They were finicky, fragile, and ran hot—but they were all anyone had.

Then came the transistor, invented at Bell Labs in 1947. Philips recognized the revolution coming and pivoted. By the early 1950s, the company was manufacturing semiconductors at facilities in Nijmegen, Netherlands, and Hamburg, Germany—the very same locations where Nexperia operates wafer fabrication plants today.

The decades that followed brought steady expansion. In 1981, Philips opened a factory in Cabuyao, in the Philippines, taking advantage of lower labor costs for the labor-intensive work of assembling and testing chips. In 1991, the company founded ITEC, which designs and manufactures the specialized equipment used to package semiconductor chips—the machinery that takes a bare silicon die and turns it into a finished component with metal leads that can be soldered onto a circuit board.

The corporate reshuffling began in 2006. Philips spun off its entire semiconductor division as a new company called NXP, selling an eighty percent stake to private equity investors. NXP went public in 2010, listing its shares on the Nasdaq stock exchange.

But NXP was a diversified semiconductor company, making everything from secure identification chips to wireless communication processors. The discrete semiconductor business—the transistors and diodes and MOSFETs—was a steady but unexciting division called Standard Products. In 2016, NXP decided to sell it.

Enter China

The buyers were Chinese: a consortium led by JAC Capital (Beijing Jianguang Asset Management Company, Limited), a subsidiary of a Chinese state-owned investment firm, and Wise Road Capital. The deal closed in February 2017, and Nexperia became an independent company, taking with it roughly eleven thousand employees, multiple factories, and decades of accumulated expertise in making the world's most basic but essential electronic components.

Less than two years later, Nexperia changed hands again. Wingtech Technology, a Chinese company that manufactures smartphones and other devices for major brands, acquired Nexperia for three point six billion dollars in October 2018.

Here's where the story gets complicated. Wingtech isn't just any Chinese company. It's partially owned by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, known by its abbreviation SASAC. This organization oversees and manages state-owned enterprises on behalf of the Chinese government. The exact percentage of government ownership varies over time as shares trade on the Shanghai stock exchange, but the connection is real and significant.

This matters because the United States and its allies have become increasingly concerned about Chinese government access to advanced technology. Semiconductors sit at the heart of these concerns. Chips power military systems, artificial intelligence, communications infrastructure—everything that determines technological and military supremacy in the twenty-first century.

Chips in Russian Missiles

In January 2023, Dutch public broadcaster Nederlandse Omroep Stichting (NOS) reported something alarming: Nexperia chips had been found in Russian military equipment, despite international sanctions imposed after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Specifically, the Royal United Services Institute—a British defense think tank—identified Nexperia transceivers inside a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile. The Kh-101 is a sophisticated weapon, capable of flying over three thousand kilometers while hugging the terrain to avoid radar detection. Russia has used these missiles extensively to strike Ukrainian cities and infrastructure.

How did chips from a Dutch company end up in Russian weapons? The answer lies in the murky world of sanctions evasion. Semiconductors are small, valuable, and sold through complex distribution networks spanning dozens of countries. A chip manufactured in Germany, assembled in Malaysia, and sold to a distributor in Hong Kong can easily find its way to an end user in Russia through a chain of intermediaries, each claiming ignorance of the final destination.

Nexperia maintained that it complied with all sanctions and had no knowledge of how its products ended up in Russian weapons. The company produces billions of components annually—tracking every single one to its final application is essentially impossible. But the discovery added another layer of concern to an already anxious Western security establishment.

The Newport Saga

Meanwhile, Nexperia was expanding in Europe. In 2021, the company purchased a semiconductor factory in Newport, Wales. This wasn't just any factory—it was the former Inmos microprocessor facility, with deep roots in British computing history.

Inmos was founded in 1978 as a government-backed attempt to establish a British presence in the semiconductor industry. The company developed the transputer, an innovative microprocessor designed for parallel computing—connecting multiple processors together to tackle problems too large for any single chip. The transputer was ahead of its time technically but failed commercially, and Inmos passed through several owners before ending up with Nexperia.

The British government was not pleased. In November 2022, citing national security concerns about Chinese ownership, officials ordered Nexperia to divest eighty-six percent of its stake in the Newport facility. Nexperia hired Akin Gump, a prominent New York law firm, to pursue a judicial review challenging the decision.

But fighting governments is expensive and uncertain. In November 2023, Nexperia agreed to sell the Newport factory to Vishay Intertechnology, an American semiconductor company, for one hundred seventy-seven million dollars. The British government approved the sale in March 2024.

The October 2025 Intervention

The Dutch government had been watching all of this unfold. The Netherlands is home to ASML, the company that makes the machines that make advanced computer chips—arguably the most strategically important company in the global semiconductor supply chain. Dutch officials understood the stakes.

In October 2025, the Ministry of Economic Affairs invoked powers under something called the Goods Availability Act to take control of Nexperia's governance. This wasn't a nationalization—the government didn't buy the company. Instead, officials essentially appointed themselves to oversee how the company was run, giving them the ability to block transfers of intellectual property or operational changes they deemed threats to national security.

According to reporting by NRC, a major Dutch newspaper, insiders said the move was specifically intended to prevent Nexperia from leaking chip-related intellectual property to China or relocating operations there. CNN reported that the Dutch government had acted under pressure from Washington, which had been pushing European allies to take a harder line on Chinese-owned technology companies.

China responded swiftly and forcefully.

About seventy percent of Nexperia's production for European markets is assembled and packaged at facilities in China. The Chinese government banned Nexperia from exporting these products. European carmakers—already struggling with chip shortages that had plagued the industry since the COVID-19 pandemic—suddenly found themselves unable to get the basic components their assembly lines needed.

The Dutch government blinked. On November 19, 2025—barely a month after seizing control—officials suspended their oversight of Nexperia's governance. Some chip sales resumed, though reportedly on a limited "drip-feed" basis to European firms.

Wingtech, Nexperia's parent company, filed a challenge in the Supreme Court of the Netherlands. As of late 2025, the legal battle continues.

Labor Troubles in the Philippines

While governments jousted over ownership and security, workers at Nexperia's Philippine factory faced their own struggles. In December 2024, the company dismissed four officials of the Nexperia Philippines Incorporated Worker's Union during ongoing negotiations over a collective bargaining agreement.

The union is affiliated with the Metal Workers Alliance of the Philippines and Kilusang Mayo Uno (the May First Movement), a federation of labor unions with roots in the Philippine left. The dismissed officials were accused of obstructing entry and exit points to the factory. Union members reported layoffs and management interference in a strike vote earlier that year.

This is a familiar pattern in globalized manufacturing. Companies locate labor-intensive operations in countries where wages are lower and labor protections weaker. Workers who attempt to organize face an uphill battle against management that can credibly threaten to move production elsewhere. The discrete semiconductor industry, with its razor-thin margins and intense cost competition, is particularly prone to these dynamics.

A Ransomware Attack

In March 2024, Nexperia disclosed that its servers had been hit by a ransomware attack. Hackers had stolen intellectual property—the designs, processes, and technical knowledge that represent the company's competitive advantage.

Ransomware attacks work like this: criminals penetrate a company's computer systems, encrypt critical files so employees can't access them, and demand payment (typically in cryptocurrency) for the decryption key. Increasingly, attackers also steal data before encrypting it, threatening to publish sensitive information if the ransom isn't paid.

For a semiconductor company, stolen intellectual property could include chip designs, manufacturing process specifications, customer lists, pricing information, and strategic plans. In the wrong hands, this information could enable competitors to copy products or could provide leverage for further extortion.

Nexperia hasn't disclosed who was behind the attack or what was taken. Such details rarely become public unless the attackers themselves release the information. But the incident underscored the vulnerability of companies caught in geopolitical crossfire—they face threats not just from governments but from criminal organizations that may or may not have state backing.

The Technology Behind the Headlines

Amid all the geopolitical drama, Nexperia continues making semiconductors. The company's engineers keep pushing the boundaries of what discrete components can do.

One area of innovation is silicon carbide technology. Traditional semiconductors are made from pure silicon, but silicon carbide—a compound of silicon and carbon atoms—can handle higher voltages and temperatures while switching on and off more efficiently. This matters enormously for electric vehicles, where power electronics must convert battery power into the precise currents needed by electric motors. Nexperia now produces silicon carbide Schottky diodes rated for six hundred fifty volts.

Another frontier is gallium nitride (GaN). Like silicon carbide, GaN can switch faster and handle higher power densities than silicon. Nexperia makes GaN FETs (field-effect transistors) for power conversion applications. Your laptop's compact USB-C charger probably contains GaN transistors—they're why modern chargers are so much smaller than the bricks of a decade ago.

The company has also moved into energy harvesting—chips that capture tiny amounts of ambient energy from light, heat, or vibration and convert it to electricity. Following Nexperia's acquisition of Nowi, a Dutch startup specializing in this technology, the company released the NEH2000BY energy harvesting PMIC (power management integrated circuit) in April 2023. These chips are designed for low-power devices like wearables and Internet of Things sensors, potentially eliminating the need for batteries that must be periodically replaced.

In July 2024, Nexperia launched a family of electronic fuses. Traditional fuses are one-shot devices: when too much current flows through them, a thin wire melts, breaking the circuit and protecting downstream equipment. But then you have to replace the fuse. Electronic fuses can reset themselves, either automatically or with a manual command. The NPS3102 e-Fuse family comes in two versions: the B-series attempts automatic recovery after detecting a fault, while the A-series waits for an external reset signal.

Global Footprint

Nexperia's operations span three continents, reflecting the globalized nature of semiconductor manufacturing.

The company's headquarters remain in Nijmegen, Netherlands, in the same region where Philips first manufactured semiconductors seven decades ago. This is also where the company maintains research and development facilities, along with additional R&D operations in nearby Delft (home to one of Europe's premier technical universities).

Wafer fabrication—the process of creating semiconductor devices on thin silicon wafers—happens in Hamburg, Germany, and Greater Manchester, England. These "front-end" factories are the most capital-intensive and technically demanding parts of the operation, requiring clean rooms where the air contains fewer particles than the vacuum of outer space.

Assembly and testing—the "back-end" operations—take place in Asia: Guangdong, China; Seremban, Malaysia; and Cabuyao, Philippines. This is where individual chips are cut from the wafer, attached to lead frames, encased in protective plastic packages, and tested to ensure they meet specifications. These operations are more labor-intensive than wafer fabrication and have historically located where wages are lower.

Research and development is distributed globally: Munich and Hamburg in Germany; Stockport in the United Kingdom; Dallas in the United States; Penang in Malaysia; Osaka in Japan; and Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Shenzhen in China. This distributed model lets the company tap engineering talent worldwide and stay close to customers in different markets.

Football and the Olympics

In May 2024, Nexperia became the main sponsor of NEC Nijmegen, a football club in the Dutch Eredivisie (the top tier of Dutch professional football). The deal extends for at least three years. It's a logical bit of corporate citizenship—supporting the hometown team of a company that has been part of the Nijmegen community for decades.

The company also supported TeamNL House during the 2024 Summer Paralympics in Paris, a gathering place in the Parc de la Villette where Dutch fans could watch events and celebrate their country's Paralympic athletes.

These sponsorships are unremarkable in themselves—countless companies support sports teams and events. But they underscore an odd reality: Nexperia is simultaneously a normal European company with local community ties and a geopolitical flashpoint where Dutch, American, and Chinese interests collide.

The Impossible Position

Nexperia finds itself caught in what might be called Europe's impossible position in the twenty-first century technology competition.

Europe invented the semiconductor industry. Philips was making transistors while Silicon Valley was still orchards. But decades of underinvestment and corporate reshuffling left much of this heritage in foreign hands. When private equity bought NXP, when Chinese investors bought the Standard Products division, when Wingtech acquired Nexperia—each transaction was legal, even welcomed. Capital flows freely in a globalized economy.

Now the rules are changing. The United States views advanced technology as central to great power competition with China. Washington has pressed allies to restrict Chinese access to semiconductors and semiconductor manufacturing equipment. The Dutch government has imposed export controls on ASML's most advanced chip-making machines. European companies are being asked—or forced—to choose sides.

But Europe depends on China in ways America doesn't. Chinese factories assemble European products. Chinese consumers buy European goods. Chinese components fill European supply chains. When the Dutch government tried to assert control over Nexperia, China demonstrated exactly how much leverage it holds: seventy percent of production, gone with an export ban.

The carmakers scrambling for chips in late 2025 learned a painful lesson about supply chain vulnerability. But there are no easy alternatives. Building new semiconductor facilities in Europe takes years and billions of euros. Finding alternate packaging and assembly suppliers—capable of producing billions of discrete components annually at competitive prices—is equally difficult.

Nexperia makes the simplest, most basic semiconductors. Transistors. Diodes. Components that have been around in some form since the 1950s. And yet these mundane devices have become tokens in a contest that will shape the technological and geopolitical landscape for decades to come.

The company's future remains uncertain. Legal battles continue. Supply chains remain disrupted. Governments in Washington, Beijing, and European capitals continue maneuvering. Whatever happens to Nexperia specifically, its story illuminates a broader truth: in the twenty-first century, even the humblest electronic components carry the weight of empires.