Reporter |
Editor | Wen Shuqi
After nearly a year of grappling with its Dutch headquarters over control, the core management team of Nexperia China finally made a joint public appearance recently, hosting a long-overdue press conference. Armed with 12-inch wafer products and a more aggressive pricing strategy, the company is determined to reclaim the market rhythm disrupted by the supply cutoff.
On August 22, Nexperia China unveiled over 20 MOSFETs, logic ICs, and bipolar discrete devices built on the 12-inch wafer platform, targeting automotive, AI servers, and industrial control applications. Zhang Qiuming, CEO of Nexperia China, announced that more than 900 12-inch platform products will be released in Q3 this year, followed by over 1,700 in Q4, with new part numbers added weekly thereafter.
Nexperia Semiconductor is the semiconductor asset acquired by Wingtech Technology in 2019. Nexperia China primarily handles its R&D, manufacturing, and sales operations within the country. On September 30, 2025, the Dutch government initiated administrative intervention against Nexperia Semiconductor. Subsequently, a Dutch court suspended Zhang Xuezheng, founder of Wingtech Technology, from his role as CEO of Nexperia Semiconductor and placed the majority of Wingtech’s shares under third-party trusteeship. By the end of October, Nexperia Netherlands halted wafer supplies to its Chinese factories.
At the press conference, Zhang Qiuming revealed that after the wafer cutoff, the overseas headquarters’ data platforms and certain office systems became inaccessible. In response, Nexperia China launched a rebuild of its independent operating system, scouted for domestic wafer suppliers, and restructured its R&D, manufacturing, and sales frameworks.
That rebuild is already paying off. Zhang noted that over the past 11 months, Nexperia China has delivered more than 40 billion chips to over a thousand customers worldwide. Currently, MOSFETs and logic ICs have taken the lead in rebuilding the local supply chain, and all three core product lines are expected to shed their reliance on a single overseas supply chain by year-end.
The pivotal move here is shifting products to the 12-inch wafer platform. According to Zhang, Nexperia’s European plants still primarily run 6-inch and 8-inch wafers, while Nexperia China is progressively migrating MOSFETs, logic ICs, and bipolar discrete devices to the 12-inch platform.
The direct payoff of switching platforms is that each wafer yields far more chips. A 12-inch wafer is roughly 2.25 times larger than an 8-inch one, boosting chip output per wafer by 2.2 to 2.5 times—and up to 4 times compared with 6-inch wafers. With similar production times and processes, the increased chip count spreads manufacturing costs thinner.
Pang Yibing, General Manager of Nexperia China’s Bipolar Discrete Devices Division, told reporters that beyond the larger wafer area, more advanced process nodes shrink individual chip size, and automated production has lifted yields. Some mature-process products now achieve yield rates of 99% or higher.
Supply chain localization has further trimmed procurement expenses. Pang revealed that domestic wafer procurement costs have dropped roughly 8%, translating to overall cost reductions of around 10% to 30% across different products. For IGBTs, where wafer costs make up a hefty chunk, end-product costs could fall by as much as 40% to 50%.
These changes are already showing up in pricing. At the press event, prices for certain general-purpose logic chips were down over 20% from last year, eight MOSFET models saw promotional prices drop about 30% year-over-year, and some transistor units were priced as low as 0.03 yuan.
Power semiconductor makers have weathered multiple rounds of price hikes this year, with lead times stretching beyond 30 weeks for some components. Amid an industry-wide wave of price increases, Nexperia China is leveraging the cost edge of its 12-inch platform to win back automotive and industrial clients.
Another benefit of the local supply chain is faster R&D and delivery. Zhang noted that the company’s new product iteration cycle has been slashed to 6–12 months, while mass production ramp-up time has shrunk from 12–16 weeks under the old overseas system to just 4–6 weeks.
Pang explained that some platform iteration cycles, which previously dragged on for up to 36 months, are now down to 9–12 months. Development time for bipolar discrete device chips has been compressed from over six months to just three. Currently, Nexperia China has more than 30 platforms in R&D or mass production, covering over 500 chips and tens of thousands of product models.
On the logic chip front, Han Lu, Head of ICS Logic Marketing at Nexperia China, told reporters that around 1,300 logic chips are now in mass production on the 12-inch platform. Several HCS series products have already secured design wins with new energy vehicle customers and are shipping into servers and edge computing applications.
AI servers are also a key battleground for Nexperia China. Han mentioned that a hot-swap MOSFET custom-designed for a leading AI company’s motherboard is slated for domestic mass production and shipment in Q4 this year, destined for国产 GPU hot-swap modules. Sources indicate there’s currently no comparable product available globally.
Beyond products, Nexperia China is also overhauling its sales channels. Within a month of the supply cutoff, the company rebuilt its online store, and every product launched at this event is available for immediate ordering. Yin Jun, Director of E-commerce, stated that all new products will prioritize online launches going forward.
For a semiconductor manufacturer that’s long relied on distributors and direct sales to major accounts, this means R&D sampling, small-to-medium volume purchases, and inventory visibility now flow directly to customers—sidestepping the distribution network that took a hit.
Disputes over Nexperia Semiconductor’s control and corporate governance are still grinding on. As of July this year, both Chinese and Dutch parties were pushing for a negotiated resolution. But until a final settlement is reached, Nexperia China is already leveraging its domestic supply chain to claw back the products, customers, and market share it lost.
