[News] Nexperia China Reportedly Launches 12-inch Chip Production, Defying Dutch Parent

Amid rising semiconductor tensions, Nexperia’s Chinese unit, according to Reuters, announced on Monday that it has started producing its own chips, taking a further step toward independence from its Dutch parent amid a dispute that has rattled global automakers’ supply chains.

The report, citing a post on its Chinese social media account, notes that Nexperia China is now manufacturing several chip types previously produced by Nexperia, but using 12-inch wafers, a size the Dutch company cannot produce in Europe.

Ijiwei adds that Nexperia China’s small-batch 12-inch wafer bipolar discrete devices are not a simple scale-up of its existing 8-inch products. Instead, the chips were fully optimized and restructured through the company’s independently developed 12-inch platform, covering chip architecture, process integration, and manufacturing workflow, the report points out.

Compared with traditional 8-inch processes, the 12-inch wafer bipolar devices can reportedly produce nearly twice as many chips per wafer, significantly improving production efficiency and material utilization while reducing unit costs, according to ijiwei.

As noted by Reuters, the standoff between Nexperia, its owner Wingtech, and the Chinese subsidiary has persisted since October 2025, following a Dutch government move to block the company from moving production to China.

Reuters reports that before the intervention, Nexperia produced wafers in Europe and packaged them into chips in China. However, the government action reportedly triggered a split: Nexperia China declared independence, while Nexperia Europe halted wafer shipments, citing nonpayment.

Nexperia China at the Heart of Global Chip Supply

Tom’s Hardware underscores Nexperia’s critical role in the global semiconductor market, controlling roughly 40% of transistors and diodes worldwide. The company’s discrete chips, as per the report, go far beyond automotive use, appearing in consumer electronics, PC power supplies, motherboards, and chargers.

Thus, any sustained disruption in Nexperia China’s output could send shockwaves across multiple industries, well beyond the auto sector. The report also notes that though the potential scale of disruption remains hard to quantify, industry analysts estimate that China accounts for roughly 50% to nearly 75% of Nexperia’s global output.

Notably, Nexperia China’s announcement of producing its own chips comes after the Netherlands-based headquarters disabled IT accounts for all Chinese staff on the evening of March 3, according to Tom’s Hardware. Last Saturday, China’s Ministry of Commerce warned this could trigger a renewed global semiconductor supply chain crisis, Reuters reports.

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(Photo credit: Nexperia)