By Anthony Henson, October 24, 2025
Volkswagen’s announcement that it has secured alternative semiconductor suppliers is less a story about chips and more a symptom of the structural fragility of global capitalism. Production at VW’s Wolfsburg plant faces disruption not because of technical incompetence, but because the automotive industry operates within a tightly controlled system of supply chains dominated by profit imperatives and geopolitical power struggles.
The low-cost Nexperia chips, essential for functions as basic as switches and steering wheels, reveal how even supposedly advanced technology is utterly dependent on globally dispersed, commodified components.
VW’s manoeuvring—securing alternative supplies, potentially on behalf of smaller suppliers—demonstrates how major corporations use market power to protect their own production while exposing the vulnerability of dependent firms and workers.
An Unnecessary Trade Dispute Backfires
The uncertainty about whether these new chips can be delivered quickly or integrated seamlessly highlights the human and industrial precarity embedded in a system designed to maximise profit, not reliability.
The disruption traces back to the illegal seizure of Nexperia by the Dutch government, triggered by U.S. trade threats and concerns over intellectual property, with Nexperia’s Chinese subsidiary now declaring independence.
The geopolitical entanglement shows how global capitalism constantly layers political conflict over economic interdependence, leaving supply chains—and the labour that depends on them—at the mercy of forces beyond their control.
In short, the VW chip shortage is not merely a logistical problem; it is a demonstration of the inherent contradictions of capitalism: a system that produces technological marvels while simultaneously creating vulnerability, inequality, and dependency on opaque global structures that prioritise profit over human need.
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