bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

moreOnThisArticles

urlAlias

commentCount

sponsorType

authorLocations

authors

paywallTypes

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

socialHeadline

headline

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

publishedDate

additionalInfoBoxes

images

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

createdDate

sponsor

factSheets

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

copyrighted

customTimezone

liveContents

Bloomberg

Britain’s national security adviser will examine the takeover of the country’s biggest semiconductor plant by a Chinese-owned company after lawmakers said it could threaten the country’s hi-tech future.
Nexperia NV acquired Welsh-based Newport Wafer Fab, which makes semiconductors mainly for the car industry, on Monday.
“We are looking into it. I have asked the national security adviser to review,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson told Parliament on Tuesday.
The UK’s Enterprise Act gives the government 30 days to either allow the deal to proceed or call it in for scrutiny. Nexperia’s parent company Wingtech Technology Co said in a statement earlier that the deal faces “uncertainties”.
Chinese-owned Nexperia said to buy UK chip maker for US$87 million
Beside supplying automotive plants, Newport Wafer has been focusing on more advanced compound semiconductors that are at the heart of technologies such as 5G and facial recognition. The company also has strong ties to a number of UK universities.
Johnson told parliament that National Security Adviser Stephen Lovegrove will “judge whether the stuff that they are making is of real intellectual property value and interest to China, whether there are real security implications”.
“The government needs to call this in and block it,” said former Conservative Party leader Iain Duncan Smith in an interview. “This yet again shows that despite the legislation, despite all the earlier tough talk, the government is looking two ways on China. This sale is an investment disaster.”
Vetoing the deal could antagonise Beijing and signal a hardening of Britain’s stance on Chinese investments in the chip industry, which is at the centre of a trade war between the US and China.
While Johnson has blocked China’s Huawei Technologies Co from taking part in Britain’s 5G wireless roll-out, the government has tended to take a lighter-touch approach with chip industry deals.
Obscure Chinese venture capital fund in spotlight after string of chip deals
Officials have waved through the sale of most of the UK’s major semiconductor firms including Arm Ltd, acquired by Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp in 2016, and Imagination Technologies, which went to a Chinese-backed private equity firm in 2017.
A new law was passed this year giving sweeping powers for the government to intervene if takeovers are deemed a threat to national security. Ministers will have five years to scrutinise transactions and have powers to unpick them if they are judged a threat.
“Long-term resilience”
Although Newport Wafer is one of the UK’s largest fabrication plants – where semiconductors are made – it remains tiny compared to facilities in the US and Asia, with annual revenue of 49.4 million pounds (US$68.2 million), according to the latest UK accounts.
Nexperia has been a customer of Newport Wafer for several years, a spokesman for Netherlands-based Nexperia said in an emailed reply to questions from Bloomberg.

 
“Newport has a proven track record and has unparalleled experience with advanced power and semiconductor technologies,” said the spokesman. “With the acquisition, Nexperia is guaranteeing its own supply chain.”
Nexperia was spun out of NXP Semiconductors NV in 2017 and acquired by a Chinese consortium led by Beijing Jianguang Asset Management Co In 2018, Wingtech – which produces mobile phones and tablets – bought a controlling stake in Nexperia for US$3.6 billion.
“I think this should be called in under the legislation,” former cabinet minister and Tory MP Damian Green said in an interview, referring to the Newport Wafer sale. “It’s clear this type of manufacturing facility lies at the heart of many industries of the future and it will be very important to our long-term resilience as a hi-tech country.”


Intel says chip spin-off is an ‘open question’ for next CEO

Apple nears switch to in-house Bluetooth, Wi-fi chips in iPhone, moving away from Broadcom

Huawei’s new Mate 70 smartphone chip is ‘not a major redesign’, teardown report finds

With China in sights, US plans curb on countries’ advanced semiconductor access: sources

Semiconductors

UK probes Chinese takeover of Newport Wafer Fab, the country’s biggest chip plant

A 300 millimetre silicon wafer, with 22-nanometre chips, in the semiconductor production clean rooms at the Globalfoundries fabrication (fab) plant in Dresden, Germany, on February 11. Photo: Bloomberg

Britain: report calls for tougher sanctions against China over treatment of Uygur Muslims

A UK parliamentary report has detailed steps the British government can take in response to alleged human rights abuses in China’s Xinjiang region. Photo: AP

A red flag is hoisted on July 1, 2021, the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party, at the International Grand Bazaar in Urumqi in China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

Britain's PM Boris Johnson attends the weekly question time debate in Parliament, in London, Britain July 7, 2021. UK Parliament/Reuters TV via REUTERS THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. NEWS AND CURRENT AFFAIRS USE ONLY, CANNOT BE USED FOR LIGHT ENTERTAINMENT OR SATIRICAL PURPOSES, PARTY POLITICAL BROADCAST USAGE MUST BE CLEARED WITH PBU

Protesters hold up placards and banners as they attend a demonstration in Sydney on June 23, 2021 to call on the Australian government to boycott the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics over China's human rights record. (Photo by Saeed KHAN / AFP)

China semiconductors: China Mobile and Apple supplier Luxshare jump on chip investment frenzy

In this Oct. 14, 2020 file photo, staff members use their smartphones at a display from Chinese telecommunications firm China Mobile at the PT Expo in Beijing. Photo: AP

Why is Didi’s cybersecurity review important and what will it mean for the ride-hailing giant’s future?

China biggest ride hailing service is next in line for the Big Tech shake up in China. Photo: Reuters

A driver of Chinese ride-hailing service Didi drives with a phone showing a navigation map on Didi's app, in Beijing, China July 5, 2021. REUTERS/Tingshu Wang

Didi’s stock investors are likely to bear the brunt of any financial losses caused by the probe. Photo: Handout

Nvidia’s Arm takeover gets support from chip giants Broadcom, MediaTek and Marvell

The logo of Nvidia Corp is seen during the annual Computex computer exhibition in Taipei on May 30, 2017. Photo: Reuters

US-China tech war: AI, semiconductors get quasi-military commanders as ‘supply chain chiefs’ to boost self-sufficiency

A Chinese flag near Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC) headquarters in Shanghai on March 23. Several local governments in China have started appointing “supply chain chiefs” of critical hi-tech industries, especially semiconductors. Photo: Bloomberg

FILE - In this Jan. 15, 2020, file photo, Chinese Vice Premier Liu He listens as former President Donald Trump speaks before signing a trade agreement at the White House in Washington. At a meeting Thursday, June 18, 2021, China pledged to harshly punish anyone responsible for major industrial accidents or outbreaks of violence in coming days as the ruling Communist Party prepares lavish celebrations for its centenary on July 1, 2021. Vice Premier Liu ordered safety checks be carried out to forestall such incidents. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

Tech

Big Tech

Policy

Business

China Business

Companies


UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he asked the country’s national security adviser to look into Nexperia’s acquisition of Newport Wafer Fab
Dutch chip maker Nexperia was acquired by China’s Wingtech Technology in 2018



UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he asked the country’s national security adviser to look into Nexperia’s acquisition of Newport Wafer Fab.


UK probes Chinese takeover of Newport Wafer Fab, the country’s biggest chip plant

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he asked the country’s national security adviser to look into Nexperia’s acquisition of Newport Wafer Fab Dutch chip maker Nexperia was acquired by China’s Wingtech Technology in 2018

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he asked the country’s national security adviser to look into Nexperia’s acquisition of Newport Wafer Fab

Dutch chip maker Nexperia was acquired by China’s Wingtech Technology in 2018