Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the current status of the bid by a Chinese owned company to purchase Newport Wafer Fab; how many UK businesses in the semi-conductor supply chain are owned by companies based outside the UK; and what assessment they have made of (1) the value of Newport Wafer Fab’s intellectual property, and (2) the sensitivity of any defence contracts it holds.
On 5 July 2021, Nexperia announced on its website that it had completed a transaction to acquire 100% of Newport Wafer Fab.
The Government recognises the importance of semiconductor technology to key UK industries, and the wider digital ecosystem. Supply chains for semiconductors are extremely complex, spanning a large number of countries.
The Government is not able to comment on a company’s commercially sensitive information, nor can the Government comment on the detail businesses’ commercial transactions or on national security assessments.