NXP CEO applauds EU Chips Act, seeks clarity on China restrictions

The CEO of Dutch computer chip giant NXP Semiconductors (NXPI.O) hailed the EU Chips Act’s approval this week but said the industry might require more clarification on export limits to China.

Kurt Sievers, whose firm develops chips for automobile and 5G telephone base stations, claimed U.S. export restrictions on Huawei had hurt his company.

“What I think for our industry is sometimes hard to deal with is there doesn’t seem to be a clear roadmap on what to expect going forward,” he told Bloomberg New Economy conference attendees.

38% of NXP’s sales are to Chinese manufacturers, half of which are processed and re-exported to Western clients.

“Much of that going forward could eventually move out of China, which doesn’t harm us,” he said. “We’ll go where our customers go.”

He anticipated Europe and the U.S. would collaborate on subsidy distribution.

He called the more than $50 billion in U.S. and 43 billion euros ($47 billion) in European subsidies to chip manufacturers “big money” from a government perspective but “not much” from a corporate perspective, given the high capital costs of building semiconductor manufacturing plants.

“It would be fantastic if there was a lot of synchronization between the U.S. Chips Act and the European Chips Act in terms of what to support so that it will be complementary,” he said.