Nexperia China shifts to domestic 12-inch wafer production

The China unit of Dutch chipmaker Nexperia has announced plans to shift its entire product line to a domestic 12-inch silicon wafer foundry, pursuing what it calls “independent operations” amid a nearly one-year-long dispute with its European headquarters.

Speaking at a press conference themed “based in China, serve the world” on Sunday, Nexperia’s China team – which used to source wafers from the firm’s European fabrication plants – said it was moving towards “100 per cent domestic production”, according to reports by local media outlets.

A central update from the Sunday briefing was a shift to a new 12-inch wafer supply provided by an unnamed “Chinese strategic partner”. Nexperia China is now transferring all its products from its previous 8-inch and 6-inch production lines.

Following a March milestone in which the unit announced it had achieved “small-volume production” of bipolar discrete devices, the firm said on Sunday that its broader product portfolio – including diodes, metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors and logic integrated circuits – would be made entirely from 12-inch wafers.

Previously, Nexperia operated under an integrated global supply chain, with raw wafers produced in German and British fabrication plants shipped for assembly to China – which is responsible for about 70 per cent of the firm’s global output – as well as Malaysia and the Philippines.