Obscure Chinese firm Wingtech Technology Co will buy Dutch chip maker Nexperia for US$3.6 billion

A little-known Chinese company that styles itself as one of the world’s biggest smartphone manufacturers is acquiring Dutch chip maker Nexperia for 25.2 billion yuan (US$3.6 billion), a mega-deal that needs US approval at a time American concerns about the world’s second largest economy run high.

Wingtech Technology Co is acquiring effectively 75.86 per cent of Nexperia, which NXP Semiconductors sold to a consortium of Chinese investors in 2016. It consolidates control of the Dutch chip maker under a company that assembles devices for smartphone brands from Huawei Technologies to Lenovo Group and Xiaomi Corp.

China has been trying to free itself from a reliance on foreign technology, investing billions of dollars in the semiconductors considered vital to national security.

The deal for Nexperia, however, requires approval from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, an inter-agency body that has already torpedoed a number of recent high-profile deals.

Concerns about China’s acquisition of technology have grown since US President Donald Trump accused the country of unfairly getting its hands on valuable intellectual property.