
Dutch government to examine Nexperia’s acquisition of Nowi
The Dutch government is planning to investigate the takeover of energy harvest startup Nowi BV by Chinese owned Nexperia BV under national security legislation that came into force on June 1.
If the acquisition is found to impact the country’s security the government could order the deal be unwound.
Nowi was founded in 2016 in Delft, The Netherlands, and developed a novel energy harvesting PMIC. The company was acquired by Nexperia BV (Nijmegen, The Netherlands) in November 2022 (see Nexperia buys Nowi to move into energy harvesting). Nowi’s PMICs are able to draw to energy from ambient sources such as vibration, radio waves and temperature gradients and use it to charge low-power equipment such as remote controls, wearables and wireless sensor nodes.
As an independent company Nowi co-operated with China’s telecommunications giant Huawei, amongst others, before receiving a bid from Nexperia (see Huawei puts Dutch energy harvest PMIC next to NB-IoT SoC). Although headquartered in The Netherlands and with European roots in NXP Semiconductors, Nexperia was itself sold to Chinese investors in 2018. This resulted in Nexperia being owned by Wingtech Technology Co. Ltd. (Jiaxing, China), a partially state-owned chip company listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange.
Dutch Economic Affairs Minister Micky Adriaansens has said the government will use the legislation to review the acquisition. “With sensitive technologies like photonics, quantum, radar technology, sensor technology and chips, there’s a risk that they may be used for military purposes,” Adriaansens told Bloomberg.
There are parallels with Nexperia’s acquisition of Newport Wafer Fab in South Wales in 2021, which was reviewed – after the acquisition – by the UK government under its on National Security and Investment legislation. In November 2022 the UK government ordered Nexperia to sell at least 86 percent of its stake in the wafer fab. That decision is being appealed by Nexperia (see Nexperia lawyers up for fight over Newport Wafer Fab).
However, there is also the possibility that the Dutch will let the acquisition of Nowi stand. Although energy harvesting is an interesting technology it is not yet key to any significant applications or volume of electronics.
A deal by Chinese companies to acquire flow sensor developer Flusso Ltd. (Cambridge, England) by a Chinese company was looked at by the UK authorities and cleared in 2022 (see Chinese takeover of Flusso was quietly cleared last year).
Related links and articles:
News articles:
Nexperia buys Nowi to move into energy harvesting
Huawei puts Dutch energy harvest PMIC next to NB-IoT SoC
Nexperia lawyers up for fight over Newport Wafer Fab
China’s Nexperia buys Newport Wafer Fab amid concerns
Chinese takeover of Flusso was quietly cleared last year
