Having been slow to conduct foreign influence screening, the Netherlands has jumped to intervening: On October 13, 2025, it invoked a never-before-used relic from the Cold War — the 1952 Goods Availability Act — to place Nexperia, a Chinese-owned chipmaker based in the Netherlands, under ministerial oversight. Citing serious governance shortcomings and the risk of “knowledge loss,” court measures also sidelined Wingtech’s chair from Nexperia roles and handed decisive control to a Dutch-appointed director. The Dutch government deems these extraordinary steps necessary to ensure the availability of Nexperia’s chips — which are vital to Europe’s auto industry — in the event of an emergency.
When Chinese firm Wingtech Technology acquired Nexperia from Philips in 2018, the Netherlands didn’t have a formal foreign investment screening mechanism. The Vifo Act of 2023 introduced a mandatory screening regime for investments and M&A that pose risks to national security. Since then, Nexperia’s Chinese influence has come under increasing scrutiny, especially amid the growing trade war over semiconductor chips between China, the US, and Europe.
The U.K. already set a…
