Netherlands joins Pax Silica to diversify the chip supply chain

Minister Sjoerd Sjoerdsma of Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation signed the accession declaration for Pax Silica on 23 June 2026 in Washington D.C. This made the Netherlands the fifteenth country to join the alliance, which was established by the United States to diversify the international chip supply chain and give multiple regions a structural role in semiconductor production.

The alliance brings together countries that collaborate on chip manufacturing, data centres and artificial intelligence. In addition to the US and the Netherlands, members include South Korea, Japan, the United Kingdom, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Australia, India and Israel. Taiwan, home to chipmaker TSMC, supports Pax Silica without being a full member. The European Union and other European member states have indicated they wish to join in the near term.

What Pax Silica aims to achieve

Jacob Helberg, the US Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs, leads the initiative. Pax Silica was launched in December 2025 with the goal of strengthening the resilience of the entire supply chain, from critical raw materials to finished products. The participating countries aim to cooperate more closely in setting up chip manufacturing and related infrastructure, reducing the vulnerability of the production chain to disruptions in any single region.

The alliance therefore addresses a broader challenge than export controls alone. Cooperation on data centre capacity and AI applications is also part of the collaborative framework.

Tensions around ASML and export rules

The Netherlands' accession coincides with a period of mounting pressure on the Dutch chip industry. On 19 June 2026, four days before the signing, US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick raised concerns about possible violations of export controls by ASML. ASML chief executive Christophe Fouquet has had to navigate that issue while his company has long been operating under restrictive export measures.

In April 2026, the Match Act was introduced in the US, a legislative proposal seeking to further restrict the export of advanced chip technology. Prime Minister Rob Jetten had previously raised these export restrictions in Washington. The Netherlands' accession to Pax Silica gives policymakers in The Hague and Brussels a formal platform to consult on such legislative processes.

Nexperia and the broader policy direction

Joining Pax Silica fits into a series of policy measures taken by the Dutch government over the past year. In October 2025, the Dutch state assumed control of Nexperia, the Netherlands-based chipmaker owned by China's Wingtech. That takeover was driven by economic security considerations.

China responded in November 2025 to Dutch chip policy, accusing the Netherlands of disrupting chip supplies. The precise context of that accusation cannot be fully reconstructed from the available source material.

Significance for the European ecosystem

With fifteen members and growing interest from the EU, Pax Silica is developing into a geopolitical cooperation framework around semiconductors that extends beyond bilateral trade agreements. For the Netherlands, home to ASML as a global supplier of lithography machines, formal involvement in such an alliance carries both a diplomatic and an industrial signal.

For other European countries considering membership, the Dutch accession provides a reference point. At the same time, the situation surrounding ASML and the Match Act makes clear that joining an alliance and resolving concrete trade tensions remain two separate tracks. European founders and investors in the semiconductor sector will therefore be watching the further development of the Match Act and the EU accession talks closely.