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Nexperia headquarters in Nijmegen on November 6, 2025. (John Thys/AFP via Getty Images)
Investment approvals are hard to unwind – preserving sovereign decision-space is essential.
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Foreign investment screening could have saved chipmaker Nexperia: What are the lessons for Australia?Foreign investment screening could have saved chipmaker Nexperia: What are the lessons for Australia?
In an unusually interventionist policy move, last September the Dutch Government invoked Cold War legislation to place Chinese-owned chipmaker Nexperia under state supervision. The stated rationale was governance shortcomings and retention of "crucial technological knowledge and capabilities" in Europe. The emergency intervention was the culmination of failed Dutch government attempts to institute oversight mechanisms and mounting US concern over technology transfer to China.
Beijing responded by imposing company-specific export controls on Nexperia’s China operations, which package chips produced in the Netherlands. This halted exports of its finished products back to Europe, causing acute strain on European automotive supply chains. After weeks of disruption and negotiation, Beijing relaxed the export controls. The Hague then suspended the order as a “gesture of goodwill” that was widely perceived as a practical climbdown in the face of Chinese pressure. However, a court-appointed CEO remains in situ in an ongoing court case brought by Nexperia’s board.
This episode is relevant to Australia because Nexperia, a second-generation Philips spin off, was acquired by minority Chinese state-owned company Wingtech Technology in 2019. This highlights a recurring dynamic in foreign investment screening: acute risks may be locked in years before they matter. When ownership and control arrangements are approved, investors gain access to intellectual property (IP) and can create dependencies or transfer capability offshore.
In sensitive sectors, screening approvals should preserve sovereign decision-space to minimise these risks. When a host government later decides it needs to reassert oversight — because of perceived governance failures, industrial capacity concerns, or geopolitical risk — the adjustment will not be smooth.
The relevant question is whether Australia’s foreign investment screening is structured to minimise the risk that approvals create enduring leverage and constrain later policy choices. That focus aligns with the Treasurer’s goal of a reformed regime that “is much stronger where risks are high and much faster where risks are low”. The Nexperia case helps clarify what “stronger where risks are high” should mean in practice.
The Nexperia case illustrates what happens when governments try to recover decision-space after control has already been ceded.
First, control and governance should be central. The degree to which an investor can influence company operations can have national security consequences. Screening needs to consider governance - board and voting arrangements, how strategic decisions are made, and whether key functions can be relocated or modified in ways that create operational dependence. The vested interests of immediate and upstream investors provide insight into how investors may direct decision-making authority, especially where there are links to foreign governments.
In the Nexperia case, Wingtech’s CEO was appointed as the CEO of Nexperia and deployed his extensive control to transfer of technical knowledge, capabilities and finances offshore. These intentions may have been foreseeable. Wingtech’s acquisition of Nexperia was part of Beijing’s push to increase its power over global semiconductor supply chains and legacy chips.
Second, reversing approvals is costly and disruptive. So, where downside risks are large and hard to unwind, preserving options is crucial. Nexperia demonstrates how quickly post-acquisition interventions can become contested once commercial control and operational integration are embedded. Conditions and monitoring should reduce the likelihood that risks emerge and provide intervention entry points.
Third, screening must be foresighted in evaluating the likelihood and impact of contingencies. In practice, this means identifying “single points of failure” across a company’s operations — supply chains, technical services, IP repositories, key staff, or logistics nodes — that could be leveraged for influence. It also requires understanding the firm’s value proposition in global supply chains. Where approvals proceed, conditions should address risk and preserve the government’s options.
The goal is to ensure companies cannot make operational decisions that create dependencies which negatively impact national security–like shifting assets and capability offshore. This is as relevant to critical minerals processing as it is to advanced manufacturing, because operational decisions can create leverage and constrain later policy choices.
Fourth, the government must have capacity to develop and monitor conditions that address risk. Screening requires a similar skillset to industrial policy: industry expertise to identify supply chain chokepoints, legal capacity to draft enforceable mechanisms, and strategic analysis of sovereign investor intentions. Multidisciplinary capacity is needed to anticipate where risks will emerge and design conditions that genuinely constrain them.
But conditions become window-dressing without robust monitoring and enforcement. The Treasurer’s agenda to strengthen enforcement powers will help address this. Routine oversight — reporting triggers, audit rights, and meaningful penalties — enables course correction before acute risk emerges. Once matters escalate into litigation or emergency intervention, geopolitical equities become entrenched and stakes are raised. Early detection and proportionate response preserve decision-space; well-defined intervention mechanisms should be deployed before disputes become existential for the asset or downstream industry. The Treasurer's last resort power provides a critical backstop, but the goal is to avoid needing it.
The Nexperia case illustrates what happens when governments try to recover decision-space after control has already been ceded. Approvals in sensitive sectors must preserve policy options, lock-in onshore capability and protect Australia’s status as a reliable partner in strategic supply chains. This requires conditions that prevent transfer of capabilities and creation of vulnerabilities. It requires the same multidisciplinary capacity as industrial policy—deep industry expertise, legal precision, and strategic foresight—backed by robust monitoring and enforcement.
About the author
Genna Lehman
Genna Lehman is a PhD candidate in the School of Politics and International Relations at the Australian National University where she is studying under a Sir Roland Wilson Pat Turner Scholarship.
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