Chipmaker's turnaround shows resilience

Nexperia China's remarkable turnaround from a Dutch-imposed supply cutoff to successful local production in less than 11 months highlights the resilience of China's semiconductor industrial chain amid mounting challenges, said corporate executives and experts.

Their remarks came as Nexperia China held a global product launch on Sunday afternoon in Shanghai, marking the first collective public appearance of the company's core management team since it was lobbed into a crisis late last year.

"We are back!" said John Chang, CEO of Nexperia China, adding that the company is now approaching 100 percent local semiconductor production.

In October 2025, the Netherlands government intervened in the operations of Nexperia, a chipmaker owned by Chinese company Wingtech Technology, citing "national security" concerns. The intervention resulted in the sidelining of Wingtech. Weeks later, Nexperia's Dutch headquarters halted wafer supplies to the plant in China.

"Wafer supply was cut off. Systems went offline. Data from the overseas headquarters became inaccessible. We had orders, clients and trust — but no wafers to process," Chang recalled.

To overcome the challenge, Nexperia China made three crucial changes, the company said at Sunday's event.

First, it successfully spun off the China unit from the overseas Dutch headquarters to establish a fully independent operating system. Second, it secured local wafer suppliers and rebuilt a controllable supply chain. And third, by leveraging the 12-inch wafer platform of its strategic Chinese partners, it achieved a huge upgrade from 6-inch and 8-inch wafers to 12-inch process technologies.

The Nexperia plants in Europe are still mainly running on 6-inch and 8-inch wafers, but Nexperia China has achieved mass production on the 12-inch platform, Chang noted.

"This represents a comprehensive leap in both production capacity and quality," Chang said.

According to the company, the 12-inch wafer platform has helped slash product iteration cycles from 36 months to just nine to 12 months. "Nexperia China achieving independent operations is not about confronting anyone; it is about protecting those we serve. To our customers, choosing Nexperia China means no more supply worries," Chang added.

In February this year, China urged the Netherlands to create favorable conditions to help Nexperia settle its internal disputes as soon as possible and to help maintain the stability of global industrial and supply chains. In July, the two sides agreed to facilitate the resolution of business disputes through consultations.

Hurdles notwithstanding, Nexperia China delivered over 40 billion chips to thousands of global customers with zero quality incidents over the past 11 months.

He Hui, semiconductor research director at the United Kingdom-based tech research company Omdia, said on Monday that China's semiconductor industrial chain has made significant progress in recent years, which can serve as a crucial backup for Chinese companies during emergencies and help them stabilize their supply chains. "More efforts are still needed to achieve breakthroughs in some key technologies," she added.

Wang Wen, dean of Renmin University of China's Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, said the Nexperia incident shows once again that the semiconductor industry, by its very nature, is a globalized sector.

"Camp-based or politicized intervention will only fracture supply chains and send costs soaring," Wang said. "Only by reducing nonmarket intervention can we truly advance global technological progress and ensure that its benefits are universally shared."

masi@chinadaily.com.cn