Car Factories on the Brink: Chip War Crisis Forces Eleventh-Hour Trade Truce
Nexperia is a major producer of so-called “mature node” semiconductors – basic but ubiquitous components like diodes, transistors and voltage regulators used in cars and consumer electronicsreuters.com. Originally part of Philips, Nexperia was sold in 2017 to Chinese investors and later fully acquired by Wingtech Technology, a Shanghai-listed electronics firminvesting.cominvesting.com. For years this arrangement flew under the radar, but rising geopolitical frictions set the stage for conflict. In December 2024, the U.S. Commerce Department placed Wingtech on its Entity List, accusing it of aiding China’s efforts to acquire sensitive chip capabilitiesreuters.com. In October 2025, Washington tightened rules to automatically restrict subsidiaries of blacklisted firmsreuters.com – a move squarely aimed at Nexperia. On 30 September 2025, the Netherlands shocked the industry by invoking emergency powers to seize control of Nexperiareuters.com. Dutch authorities removed the company’s China-appointed CEO and installed their own management, citing “governance shortcomings” and fears Nexperia’s know-how might be siphoned off to Chinatheguardian.comreuters.com. Court documents later revealed that U.S. officials had been pressing the Netherlands to act for months, worried that without intervention Nexperia could end up on the U.S. export blacklistreuters.comreuters.com. In other words, Nexperia was caught in the crossfire of the U.S.–China tech war, as a European
