The Netherlands approved the acquisition of Dutch chip companies by Chinese-funded enterprises, will the chip alliance that the United States painstakingly built collapse?Let's take a look at what's going on.
Previously, the United States roped in the Netherlands and Japan to set up a chip alliance to not allow the export of advanced lithography machines and other semiconductor chips to China.
Although the Netherlands also reviewed the transaction this time, the result of the review was uncharacteristically approved for the acquisition of the Chinese company. As one of the largest partners of the Netherlands, China's restrictions on the export of chips and lithography machines to China have affected the Dutch export volume to us and hurt its own economic interests. It is not yet known whether the Netherlands approved the deal in consideration of its economic relations with us and did not want the two sides to continue to ossify, but there are some factors in this regard. Let's take a look at what kind of acquisition this is.
In 2018, the domestic chip giant Wingtech Technology acquired Nexperia of the Netherlands for 25.2 billion yuan, and Nexperia is headquartered in the Netherlands. In November 2022, Nexperia acquired the Dutch semiconductor startup Nowi, but the Netherlands has been investigating the deal on the grounds of ***. It was not until 27 November that it was ratified by the Netherlands**. The Dutch Minister of Economic Affairs sent a letter to Parliament saying that NOWI's technology does not involve dual-use related technologies and does not pose a threat to ***.
Nowi mainly produces battery replacement chips, and its core product is a battery that can obtain energy from environmental resources such as solar energy, vibration, radio waves, etc., to charge batteries or replace batteries altogether. This technology is currently limited to civilian use and has no military use.
Although the United States is opposed to it as always, the Netherlands has based on its own factors and the transaction does not involve military use, so the Netherlands withstood the pressure of the United States and approved the deal, praising the independent decision-making of the Netherlands.