UK authorizes chip factory takeover

A political dispute has erupted in the UK over acquisition plans for the Newport Wafer Fab microchip factory. The British government had approved the controversial sale of the Welsh semiconductor factory to Nexperia, a Dutch subsidiary of China’s Wingtech Group. In July 2021, London had ordered National Security Advisor Sir Stephen Lovegrove to review the deal (China.Table reported). As local media now reports, Lovegrove concluded that there had not been sufficient security concerns to stop the sale. Newport Wafer Fab is one of the few plants in the UK that still manufactures semiconductors. The exact timescale of the takeover had not been publicly announced.