By 2025, that picture had shifted again. Chinese industrial policy had elevated Wingtech as a model of integration across design, manufacturing, and final assembly. European authorities, faced with their own efforts to strengthen chip supply under the EU Chips Act, regarded this consolidation with more caution. At the same time, the U.S. sought to close what it saw as gaps in its export-control regime. When China responded to the Dutch measures by restricting Nexperia’s outbound shipments, the overlap of these positions hardened.
The core technical challenge revealed by the Nexperia dispute is that the semiconductor supply chain remains deeply interdependent even in areas considered low risk. Power transistors, diodes, and level shifters do not sit at the centre of geopolitical strategy papers. They are manufactured on older processes, with tooling that predates the EUV era by decades. Because they are simple, they have long been viewed as interchangeable. The past four years have demonstrated that this assumption is fragile. Production is concentrated in a small number of companies, and for certain categories, Nexperia is one of only a handful of suppliers with the scale to support global automotive platforms.
Those characteristics complicate efforts to localise supply or insulate operations from political pressure. When the Dutch government intervened in Nexperia’s management, China’s countermeasures did not target rare earths or advanced lithography equipment, but the output of subcontracting facilities handling packaging and test. It was a reminder that the finishing stages of semiconductor production are often outsourced. Even when front-end wafer capacity sits in Europe, back-end work can be vulnerable to administrative decisions thousands of miles away.
The U.S. sanctions add a further layer. Under the affiliates rule, Nexperia could face the same restrictions as its parent on receiving U.S.-origin technology. This rule is currently suspended for a year as part of the U.S.-China trade deal , but there are no guarantees for the future.
The partial suspension of the Dutch order in November created space for negotiations, but it did not unwind the deeper issues. The court-appointed administrator remains in place while the mismanagement inquiry continues, and the U.S. has shown no sign of relaxing its sanctions.
China carved out exemptions for automotive-grade parts after weeks of pressure and a growing cash-flow risk , yet the episode highlighted how quickly supply can be weaponized in both directions. For companies in adjacent segments — analog components, sensors, power modules — it seems that ownership structures now carry operational risk, even for those that don’t handle cutting-edge or strategically important tech.
This is the environment in which Nexperia will operate for the foreseeable future. The firm has the manufacturing scale and customer base to remain central to global electronics, but its position between European regulators, a Chinese parent, and U.S. export controls has narrowed the room for manoeuvre.
The question is whether a long-term governance structure can emerge that satisfies all three camps while preserving the continuity that its customers depend on. Until that happens, the full implications of the 2025 intervention will continue to reverberate across one of the most fundamental layers of the semiconductor supply chain.
Luke James Social Links Navigation Contributor Luke James is a freelance writer and journalist. Although his background is in legal, he has a personal interest in all things tech, especially hardware and microelectronics, and anything regulatory.
Key considerations
- Investor positioning can change fast
- Volatility remains possible near catalysts
- Macro rates and liquidity can dominate flows
Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/nexierpas-standoff-puts-a-core-part-of-the-chip-supply-chain-under-strain#main
- https://www.tomshardware.com
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