The Federal Ministry of Economics of the Green politician is investigating an exclusion of the chip manufacturer from a multi-billion dollar subsidy program. Nexperia has its main plant in Hamburg-Lokstedt, where semiconductors for 100 billion devices per year are produced.
(Photo: AP, Imago)
Berlin, Brussels, Munich Robert Habeck (Greens) was in office for nine days in December 2021 when his Federal Ministry of Economics sent a letter to the EU Commission. The letter contained 32 funding applications from the chip industry in Germany. The officials kindly asked for approval of the subsidies. The list is available to the Handelsblatt.
A name on it now brings the authority in acute need of explanation: Nexperia. The company with 14,000 employees worldwide comes from the Netherlands and operates plants in Hamburg.
The problem with this: Nexperia is in Chinese hands and has belonged to the Chinese group Wingtech since 2018 – which has close ties to the Chinese state. Nevertheless, a year ago the Ministry of Economics put the company on the provisional list of “Important Projects of Common European Interest” (IPCEI) for funding.
But the debate has since turned. The federal government is increasingly distancing itself from the People’s Republic. In the case of strategic goods such as semiconductors in particular, Berlin is attempting to push back Chinese influence.
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