Category: 3. Business

Unemployment among young people in the UK is hitting sales growth and profits at JD Sports, the owner of the trainer and sportwear chain has said, amid warnings about the high number of under-25s not in work, education or training.

The UK was the worst performing market for JD Group, which also owns Blacks, Go Outdoors and a number of US and European sports chains.

Régis Schultz, the chief executive, said JD was experiencing “pressures on our core customer demographic, including rising unemployment levels, as well as near-term volatility around consumer sentiment”.

His comments came as official figures on Thursday showed the number of 16- to 24-year-olds who are not in education, employment or training (Neet) remains stubbornly close to the highest level in a decade.

graph of number of 16- to 24-year-olds in the UK who are categorised as Neet

Despite a modest decline in the three months to September to 946,000, down from 948,000 in the previous quarter, campaigners said the figures from the Office for National Statistics showed Britain was at risk of failing a whole generation of young people.

The figures mean one in eight young people are Neet amid a rapid increase in unemployment more broadly, with the official jobless rate at 5%, the highest level since the Covid pandemic. Last week the Guardian revealed that almost half of all jobs shed since Labour came to power were among the under-25s.

Barry Fletcher, the chief executive of the Youth Futures Foundation, said: “This is a long-term problem that continues to negatively shape the lives of too many across the country.”

The squeeze on spare cash for young people contributed to a 3.3% slide in sales at established JD Group stores in the three months to 1 November. Sales were also down in the US and EU – by 1.7% and 1.1% respectively – amid similar pressures as well as a lack of new product launches to draw in shoppers and the slowdown in the trend for women’s vintage trainers.

The company has also suffered from a heavy reliance on Nike, which has been struggling to spur consumer interest recently with critics pointing to a lack of new ideas.

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JD said annual profits would now be at the lower end of expectations – at about £853m – and well below a once hoped for £1bn. It said it was “taking a pragmatic approach” to its outlook for this financial year, due to “incrementally weaker macro and consumer indicators in recent weeks”.

Aarin Chiekrie, an equity analyst at the broker Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “Trading across the UK remains particularly weak, with recent changes to employer taxes and minimum wages bringing a handful of extra costs and challenges.”

The weak numbers came as another youth brand, Dr Martens, said consumers were “cautious right now” and “looking for deals” right across Europe and in the US. The British bootmaker said it was putting prices up on some items in the US in January to offset the impact of Trump’s import tariffs, which it said amounted to between £7m and £9m.

Tietoevry Corporation     INSIDE INFORMATION     20 November 2025 6:00 p.m. EET

 

Tietoevry’s cost optimization programme, targeting EUR 115 million in run-rate savings by the end of 2026, is progressing well. The contribution to operating profit in 2025 is higher than anticipated and consequently, the company upgrades its profitability outlook for the full year. As the year is approaching its end, the company also narrows down growth outlook.

 

Revised outlook for 2025:

Tietoevry expects its organic1) growth to be in the range of -2% to -1% (revenue in 2024: EUR 1 879.5 million). The company estimates its full-year adjusted operating margin2) (adjusted EBITA3)) to be 13.3–13.8% (12.0% in 2024).

 

The profitability outlook includes a negative impact of approximately 1.0 percentage points on the adjusted operating margin (EBITA) related to IFRS 5 for Tech Services divestment. The impact comprises the costs that the company was not able to allocate to discontinued operations until the divestment closing on 2 September, and transition services income after that date.

 

Previous outlook for 2025:

Tietoevry expects its organic1) growth to be in the range of -2% to 0% (revenue in 2024: EUR 1 879.5 million). The company estimates its full-year adjusted operating margin2) (adjusted EBITA3)) to be 12.7-13.3% (12.0% in 2024).

 

The profitability outlook includes a negative impact of approximately 1.1 percentage points on the adjusted operating margin (EBITA) related to IFRS 5 for Tech Services divestment. The impact comprises the costs that the company was not able to allocate to discontinued operations until the divestment closing on 2 September, and transition services income after that date.

 

1) Adjusted for currency effects, acquisitions and divestments.

2) Adjustment items include restructuring costs, capital gains/losses, impairment charges and other items affecting comparability.

3) Profit before interests, taxes and amortization of acquisition-related intangible assets

 

For further information, please contact
Tommi Järvenpää, Head of Investor Relations, tel. +358 40 576 0288, tommi.jarvenpaa (at) tietoevry.com

 

 

TIETOEVRY CORPORATION

 

DISTRIBUTION

NASDAQ Helsinki

NASDAQ Stockholm

Oslo Børs

Principal Media

 

Tietoevry is a leading software and digital engineering services company with global market reach and capabilities. We provide customers across different industries with mission-critical solutions through our specialized software businesses Tietoevry Care, Tietoevry Banking and Tietoevry Industry, as well as our digital engineering business Tietoevry Create. Our around 15 000 talented vertical software, design, cloud and AI experts are dedicated to empowering our customers to succeed and innovate with latest technology.

 

Tietoevry’s annual revenue is approximately EUR 2 billion. The company’s shares are listed on the NASDAQ exchange in Helsinki and Stockholm, as well as on Oslo Børs. www.tietoevry.com

 

They’re cute, even cuddly, and promise learning and companionship — but artificial intelligence toys are not safe for kids, according to children’s and consumer advocacy groups urging parents not to buy them during the holiday season.

These toys, marketed to kids as young as 2 years old, are generally powered by AI models that have already been shown to harm children and teenagers, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, according to an advisory published Thursday by the children’s advocacy group Fairplay and signed by more than 150 organizations and individual experts such as child psychiatrists and educators.

“The serious harms that AI chatbots have inflicted on children are well-documented, including fostering obsessive use, having explicit sexual conversations, and encouraging unsafe behaviors, violence against others, and self-harm,” Fairplay said.

AI toys, made by companies such as Curio Interactive and Keyi Technologies, are often marketed as educational, but Fairplay says they can displace important creative and learning activities. They promise friendship but also disrupt children’s relationships and resilience, the group said.

“What’s different about young children is that their brains are being wired for the first time and developmentally it is natural for them to be trustful, for them to seek relationships with kind and friendly characters,” said Rachel Franz, director of Fairplay’s Young Children Thrive Offline Program. Because of this, she added, the amount of trust young children are putting in these toys can exacerbate the harms seen with older children.

Fairplay, a 25-year-old organization formerly known as the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, has been warning about AI toys for years. They just weren’t as advanced as they are today. A decade ago, during an emerging fad of internet-connected toys and AI speech recognition, the group helped lead a backlash against Mattel’s talking Hello Barbie doll that it said was recording and analyzing children’s conversations.

This time, though AI toys are mostly sold online and more popular in Asia than elsewhere, Franz said some have started to appear on store shelves in the U.S. and more could be on the way.

“Everything has been released with no regulation and no research, so it gives us extra pause when all of a sudden we see more and more manufacturers, including Mattel, who recently partnered with OpenAI, potentially putting out these products,” Franz said.

It’s the second big seasonal warning against AI toys since consumer advocates at U.S. PIRG last week called out the trend in its annual “ Trouble in Toyland ” report that typically looks at a range of product hazards, such as high-powered magnets and button-sized batteries that young children can swallow. This year, the organization tested four toys that use AI chatbots.

“We found some of these toys will talk in-depth about sexually explicit topics, will offer advice on where a child can find matches or knives, act dismayed when you say you have to leave, and have limited or no parental controls,” the report said. One of the toys, a teddy bear made by Singapore-based FoloToy, was later withdrawn, its CEO told CNN this week.

Dr. Dana Suskind, a pediatric surgeon and social scientist who studies early brain development, said young children don’t have the conceptual tools to understand what an AI companion is. While kids have always bonded with toys through imaginative play, when they do this they use their imagination to create both sides of a pretend conversation, “practicing creativity, language, and problem-solving,” she said.

“An AI toy collapses that work. It answers instantly, smoothly, and often better than a human would. We don’t yet know the developmental consequences of outsourcing that imaginative labor to an artificial agen — but it’s very plausible that it undercuts the kind of creativity and executive function that traditional pretend play builds,” Suskind said.

Beijing-based Keyi, maker of an AI “petbot” called Loona, didn’t return requests for comment this week, but other AI toymakers sought to highlight their child safety protections.

California-based Curio Interactive makes stuffed toys, like Gabbo and rocket-shaped Grok, that have been promoted by the pop singer Grimes. The company said it has “meticulously designed” guardrails to protect children and the company encourages parents to “monitor conversations, track insights, and choose the controls that work best for their family.”

In response to the earlier PIRG findings, Curio said it is “actively working with our team to address any concerns, while continuously overseeing content and interactions to ensure a safe and enjoyable experience for children.”

Another company, Miko, based in Mumbai, India, said it uses its own conversational AI model rather than relying on general large language model systems such as ChatGPT in order to make its product — an interactive AI robot — safe for children.

“We are always expanding our internal testing, strengthening our filters, and introducing new capabilities that detect and block sensitive or unexpected topics,” said CEO Sneh Vaswani. “These new features complement our existing controls that allow parents and caregivers to identify specific topics they’d like to restrict from conversation. We will continue to invest in setting the highest standards for safe, secure and responsible AI integration for Miko products.”

Miko’s products are sold by major retailers such as Walmart and Costco and have been promoted by the families of social media “kidfluencers” whose YouTube videos have millions of views. On its website, it markets its robots as “Artificial Intelligence. Genuine friendship.”

Ritvik Sharma, the company’s senior vice president of growth, said Miko actually “encourages kids to interact more with their friends, to interact more with the peers, with the family members etc. It’s not made for them to feel attached to the device only.”

Still, Suskind and children’s advocates say analog toys are a better bet for the holidays.

“Kids need lots of real human interaction. Play should support that, not take its place. The biggest thing to consider isn’t only what the toy does; it’s what it replaces. A simple block set or a teddy bear that doesn’t talk back forces a child to invent stories, experiment, and work through problems. AI toys often do that thinking for them,” she said. “Here’s the brutal irony: when parents ask me how to prepare their child for an AI world, unlimited AI access is actually the worst preparation possible.”

Asda is selling off 24 stores and a distribution centre – and leasing them back – to raise £568m in what has been called a “sign of weakness” as sales continue to fall.

The Leeds-based supermarket group, which is expected to release its quarterly results next week, has continued to lose market share to rivals as sales have gone backwards, despite an effort to win over shoppers with price cuts and improved stores.

Sales fell 3.9% in the three months to 2 November, according to data from Worldpanel by Numerator (formerly Kantar), which indicated a one percentage point drop in market share from a year before.

Asda’s parent group slumped to a near-£600m loss last year as sales fell and the cost of servicing its debt pile increased.

Clive Black, a retail analyst at Shore Capital, said: “From the outside it looks like a sign of weakness that tangible fixed assets are being sold at this time.”

He said the deal might help Asda to pay off debt or allow more capital to invest in the business but would also mean higher rents, meaning less cash for day-to-day operations.

“If trading was hunky dory, that can be accommodated in the big scheme of things, but that is not the case. We had expected a more stable trading position from Asda by now,” Black said. “Recent market share data has been very poor for grocery. It all feels rather tight.”

Patrick O’Brien, an analyst at GlobalData, said Asda’s promise in March under its new chair, Allan Leighton, to stir up the market with a barrage of price cuts, did not appear to have hit home.

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“There was a feeling that Asda were really going to bring out the big guns and we haven’t really seen that materialise,” he said. “We have not seen that aggressiveness on price as yet.”

Nadine Houghton, a national officer for the GMB union, which represents thousands of the retailer’s workers, said there were concerns about Asda’s future in the light of the latest lease-back deal: “Asda’s owners, TDR Capital, is selling off yet more assets to settle the debt liabilities heaped on the business by its own borrowing. Debt is up, lease liabilities are up, interest payments are up – but market share and staff morale are rock bottom.”

Asda, which has 579 supermarkets, 517 Express convenience stores and 29 Asda Living general merchandise and fashion outlets in total, said it would continue to operate from the latest batch of stores to be sold off. They have gone to two buyers: DTZ Investors and Blue Owl Capital.

The deal is part of plan to cut hefty debts at Asda since a highly leveraged £6.8bn takeover in 2020 by the billionaire Issa brothers and the private equity firm TDR Capital. TDR now controls the group after buying out one of the brothers, Zuber Issa, while Mohsin Issa retains a 22% stake.

Armarveer Singh, a credit analyst at CreditSights, said the deal would negatively affect Asda’s credit rating as it would increase leasehold exposure while the proceeds of the sale and leaseback would not be used for investment or cutting the group’s main debts. Bonds fell as it emerged that the money is to be used to pay off a debt to Walmart, the US retailer that previously owned Asda and retains a 10% stake, as first reported by the Financial Times.

Asda previously sold most of its warehouses for £1.7bn in 2021, and 25 supermarkets for £650m two years later, in similar deals in which it agreed to lease back the properties. It also signed a more unusual ground rent deal for £300m in 2023.

An Asda spokesperson said: “Asda’s property strategy is centred on maintaining a strong freehold base while also taking a considered and selective approach to unlocking value from our estate where appropriate. These transactions reflect that approach, enabling us to realise value from the sites while retaining full operational control.”

KINGSTON, R.I. – Nov. 20, 2025 – Most people can recall a favorite class or teacher who left an indelible mark on their lives. While subject matter plays a role, the deeper connection often stems from how that teacher made students feel.

Fictional characters such as Mr. Miyagi in The Karate Kid or John Keating in Dead Poets Society have inspired generations of teachers with their seemingly effortless, unconventional approaches to learning.

Teaching, however, is far from effortless. Meticulous planning is required to deliver lectures with confidence and clarity, while managing a room containing anywhere from 30 to 200 different personalities. 

“In the classroom you’re up on a stage, and students are looking at you waiting for you to do something,” says Mehmet Yalcin, an associate professor of supply chain management in the University of Rhode Island’s College of Business.

As any teacher will attest, the classroom shares a striking similarity with the big stage. The performative nature of teaching, especially when it comes to presence and delivery, can shape learning experiences as much as the content itself.

Viewing the classroom as a stage and teaching as a form of performance served as the foundation for a paper co-authored by several URI faculty members, including Yalcin and fellow College of Business Associate Professor of Accounting Anis Triki. Their paper, published in the Journal on Excellence in College Teaching, looks at the relationship between theatre skills and those assuming new teaching roles. 

“I took an acting course with our Theatre Department,” said Yalcin. “In fact, I had written a proposal about getting folks trained because I trained myself during my Ph.D. years to become a better instructor.”

As part of the initiative that led to this research project, a multidisciplinary team collaborated to explore graduate students’ experiences in the classroom. The project team consisted of colleagues Rachel Walsh and Max Ponticelli from the Theater Department; Anna Santucci, from the Office for the Advancement of Teaching & Learning, Rabia Hos and Stefanie Argus from the College of Education; and Triki and Yalcin from the College of Business.

The team hosted a workshop introducing graduate teaching assistants to theatre-based strategies. With the lead of Hos, the project team surveyed and interviewed graduate students about their confidence and preparedness before they stepped into the classroom.

In the authors’ findings, many graduate teaching assistants reported feeling unprepared, citing challenges in classroom management, content delivery and even language barriers. The assistants felt they needed training on managing a classroom. Their remarks reflected the abrupt transition from student to teacher that many graduate assistants face. Nearly a third felt they needed some form of professional development. One respondent expressed concern their anxiety would impact students’ ability to learn.

“What we saw was a lot of students felt a need to be better prepared in the classroom,” said Triki. “It’s like you’re a TA, and then you’re all of a sudden pushed into a student facing role.”

Yalcin says that theatrical techniques can enhance classroom engagement and instructor confidence. And the research bears that out. 

Based on surveys following the workshop, students expressed a greater level of security in their ability. The authors’ research suggests that even brief exposure to performance-based techniques can significantly boost self-assurance.

The workshop primarily centered on incorporating essential theatre performance skills to create better instructors. This included adlibbing, a skill essential in adapting to unpredictable classroom environments, as well as leadership skills to command a room when necessary. Students who applied some of these theatre performance skills therefore felt significantly more confident in their teaching ability to “perform” on stage in the classroom.

“Using a loud voice so that the back row can hear or using gestures in thoughtful way are the skills that you’re gaining at the end of the day,” said Yalcin.

Building on insights gained through the research, the College of Business and the Harrington School of Communication and Media have begun integrating theatre modules into graduate-level teaching practicums. The next phase of research will examine the financial implications of implementing theatre training programs for graduate assistants preparing to teach.

By Barbara Kollmeyer

‘This is a truly game-changing technology that will reshape the world economy in the years to come,’ says the bank.

For investors, there’s no ‘turning back’ on AI now, says Barclays.

On a day of blowout results and forecasts from Nvidia, our call of the day says investors have reached the point of no return with AI, which is all that matters heading into 2026 and beyond.

“We expect AI to be the most important macro factor in 2026, as traditional drivers such as monetary policy and trade policy fade,” writes Ajay Rajadhyaksha, global chairman of research at Barclays in the bank’s 2026 outlook – “As Goes AI.”

“We think fears of a collapse in the AI narrative are overdone and expect the economic expansion to continue for yet another year,” Rajadhyaksha adds. The U.K. bank that is a U.S Treasury dealer says its outlook includes a boosted 2026 2026 forecast for the S&P 500 SPX to 7400 from 7000.

Fears that AI companies may not be able to deliver on the vast amounts of spending on the technology have been a major driver of hiccups for stocks in recent weeks. That’s as investors also fret over waning expectations the Fed will make one last rate cut this year.

Driving home AI importance, Rajadhyaksha estimates about 1% of U.S. growth in 2025 came from spending on the technology, with “old” economy spillover for construction on data centers, telecoms firms putting down networking equipment, etc.

“The scale of the build-out will probably dwarf the telecom rollout; the U.S. is likely in the middle of its biggest capex cycle in many decades,” Rajadhyaksha says.

AI has also been playing a massive role in boosting stock markets and investor wealth, he says, estimating that since end-2022, AI-related equities have driven 75% to 80% of the S&P 500’s earnings and total performance. That’s as the U.S. consumer has faced down trade worries, job uncertainty and housing market troubles.

“Strong wealth gains, powered by AI-sensitive equities, are a large part of why. AI spending helped investment, and AI equities helped consumption,” says Rajadhyaksha.

The biggest risk to investors and the U.S. is the AI revolution running out of steam, he says. With households holding $45 to $47 trillion in equities, a 30% fall in valuations, for example, would lead to a household hit of $15 trillion, hitting that wealth effect and consumption, collapsing AI capex and likely triggering a recession, says the strategist.

“We remain believers; we think comparisons to 2000-02 are exaggerated, even if total spending will likely be greater,” he says. Supporting that view he notes that markets have rebounded from each AI-related scare, such as DeepSeek, as hyperscalers margins and profits are strong and AI use cases are increasingly showing up.

Read: This sleeper AI risk for stocks in 2026 has got Wall Street talking over the past few weeks

The firm forecasts 2.1% U.S. growth next year, as tariff drags fade and the One Big Beautiful Bill’s fiscal boost kicks in. They don’t expect material AI-caused job losses but do expect productivity will drive the next four quarters of growth.

So how to play the AI revolution? Barclays has shifted to a positive view on the whole technology, media and telecom sector as a secular growth story, with expectations for AI-driven capex and double-digit growth for cloud and digital advertising businesses.

Other themes Barclays likes: cyclical/growth equities that would benefit from Fed rate cuts; potential for deal activity driven by easier financial conditions; and financials owing to U.S. economic resiliency. The bank also lifted utilities to positive, on expectations of a boost from lower rates, plus data-center power demand. Consumer, commodity-linked and healthcare sectors will lag behind the S&P 500, due to inflation firming up, commodity oversupply and regulatory headwinds, says the strategist.

Style-wise, they are betting on growth over value, helped by tech-led earnings strength.

Barclays also recommends exposure to 2-year Treasury yields, with Fed cuts unlikely to go away. Elsewhere, Chile, Peru, Australia and South Africa will likely benefit from demand for metals and critical minerals by AI.

Read: While Nvidia is thriving, this CEO hails an anti-AI bet – and is winning

The markets

U.S. stocks DJIA SPX COMP are surging at the start following jobs data and Nvidia earnings. Treasury yields BX:TMUBMUSD10Y are moving lower and bitcoin (BTCUSD) is rising.

   Key asset performance                                                Last       5d      1m      YTD      1y 
   S&P 500                                                              6642.16    -3.05%  -0.85%  12.93%   12.25% 
   Nasdaq Composite                                                     22,564.23  -3.60%  -0.77%  16.85%   18.97% 
   10-year Treasury                                                     4.144      1.80    13.90   -43.20   -28.10 
   Gold                                                                 4065.8     -2.60%  -1.87%  54.05%   52.15% 
   Oil                                                                  59.41      1.38%   -3.79%  -17.34%  -15.29% 
   Data: MarketWatch. Treasury yields change expressed in basis points 

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Take control of your news. Make MarketWatch your preferred source on Google.

The buzz

September nonfarm payrolls rose 119,000 versus an expected 50,000, with the unemployment rate rose to 4.4% from 4.3%, which was the expected number. A revision to August data showed a 4,000 drop in jobs instead of 22,000 created as previously estimated. Weekly jobless claims fell by 8,000 to 220,000 in the week ended Nov. 15. The Philly Fed survey showed weakening activity in November, while existing-home sales for October are due at 10 a.m.

Walmart stock (WMT) is falling after beating forecasts for overall third-quarter profit and sales, but posting a disappointing Sam’s Club performance and increased outlooks that didn’t quite impress Wall Street. The retailer will also move its stock listing to the Nasdaq from the NYSE early next month. Ross Stores (ROST) will report after the close.

Nvidia shares (NVDA) are up 6% after the AI-chipmaker beat revenue expectations by more than $2 billion, and its outlook exceeded consensus by nearly $3 billion. And from CEO Jensen Huang: “AI is going everywhere, doing everything, all at once.”

Datacenter operators Super Micro Computer (SMCI) and CoreWeave (CRWV) are getting a Nvidia-fueled boost, along with Vertiv (VRT), a maker of air conditioning systems for server racks.

Palo Alto Networks shares (PANW) are falling after the cybersecurity group’s earnings just beat forecasts and its outlook was in line.

IBM (IBM) and Cisco Systems (CSCO) announced a new partnership over quantum computers.

Abbott (ABT) announced a $21 billion deal for Exact Sciences (EXAS), which makes the game-changing colorectal cancer test Cologuard.

Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook speaks at 11 a.m., Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee at 1:40 p.m. and Philly Fed President Anna Paulson at 6:45 p.m.

Best of the web

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Opinion: If robots replace workers, what happens to Social Security?

The chart

Nike shares (NKE) have entered a so-called “death cross,” a pessimistic setup that bodes for tougher times ahead for the stock. The definition of a death cross is when the 50-day average of the stock falls below the 200-day and the worry is that the decline could keep going. Tariffs and a tough China market are issues for the stock that has lost 17% so far in 2025. Read more here.

Top tickers

These were the top-searched tickers on MarketWatch as of 6 a.m.:

   Ticker  Security name 
   NVDA    Nvidia 
   TSLA    Tesla 
   AMD     Advanced Micro Devices 
   PLTR    Palantir 
   TSM     Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing 
   GME     GameStop 
   AMZN    Amazon 
   AAPL    Apple 
   MSFT    Microsoft 
   GOOGL   Alphabet 

Random reads

The fight to save the “Dazed and Confused” middle school.

A record $2.6 million sale – for the most “complicated pocketwatch ever made.

What you can’t say on the internet.

-Barbara Kollmeyer

This content was created by MarketWatch, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. MarketWatch is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

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Dutch government’s decision to relinquish control of chipmaker comes after major disruption to automotive supply chains.

The Netherlands has announced that it will return control of chipmaker Nexperia to its Chinese parent company, a step towards resolving a standoff between The Hague and Beijing that upended automotive supply chains.

Dutch Economic Affairs Minister Vincent Karremans said on Wednesday that he had suspended an order to effectively seize control of the chipmaker following “constructive” talks with Chinese officials and consultations with European and international partners.

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“We are positive about the measures already taken by the Chinese authorities to ensure the supply of chips to Europe and the rest of the world,” Karremans said in a statement.

“We see this as a show of goodwill. We will continue to engage in constructive dialogue with the Chinese authorities in the period ahead.”

China’s Ministry of Commerce welcomed the announcement as a “first step”, but called for the full revocation of the order, describing it as the “root cause” of the supply chain disruptions.

It also criticised a Dutch court’s “erroneous ruling” last month that forced out Nexperia’s Chinese CEO, Zhang Xuezheng, over alleged mismanagement.

Jo Van Biesebroeck, an economics professor at KU Leuven, said Europe’s efforts to craft a strategy for managing China’s involvement in critical supply chains were a “work in progress”.

“The Nexperia action was triggered by specific actions, and the main worry now seems to be diminished with the personnel change at Nexperia,” Biesebroeck told Al Jazeera.

“The Dutch government made clear how far it is willing to go, and it seems like China has met them halfway.”

The Dutch government took effective control of Nexperia, owned by Jiaxing-based Wingtech, in late September, citing the need to ensure chip supplies amid concerns Zhang could move manufacturing operations and intellectual property to China.

The move came after the United States had warned the Netherlands that the company would likely be placed on its list of sanctioned firms unless it replaced Zhang, though Dutch officials have denied acting due to pressure from Washington.

Beijing condemned the Dutch government’s intervention, invoked under the Cold War-era Goods Availability Act, as an act of “improper interference” in a company’s affairs and blocked exports of some Nexperia products manufactured in China in response.

Japanese carmakers Honda and Nissan were forced to cut back production amid the resulting disruption to supply chains, while Germany’s Mercedes-Benz announced that it had taken steps to secure chip supplies in the short term.

Chinese authorities lifted the ban on Nexperia exports earlier this month as part of measures agreed to under the trade truce announced by US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping last month in South Korea.

The proven expertise of the Rolls-Royce LibertyWorks team – in areas like subsonic, supersonic, and hypersonic propulsion; electrical power; thermal management; and mobile nuclear power – has shaped technology solutions applicable to a wide range of missions and customers.

LibertyWorks has worked with technology organizations of the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, as well as the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, NASA, and others to transform concepts to realities for three decades.

The LibertyWorks team developed advanced technologies contributing to the Short Take-Off and Vertical Landing (STOVL) capabilities of the LiftSystem used in the Technology Demonstrator – forerunner to the revolutionary U.S. Marine Corps F-35B.

The team also developed technologies supporting platforms like the subsonic U.S. Navy MQ-25 Stingray autonomous refueling platform and the new U.S. Army MV-75 Future Long Range Assault Aircraft, and continues work in areas like air breathing hypersonic propulsion to support future needs. LibertyWorks is also proud to be part of the U.S. Department of War’s Project Pele advanced nuclear microreactor.

To support LibertyWorks and its other U.S. defense operations, Rolls-Royce North America has invested more than $1 billion in technology enhancements, facility upgrades and test capabilities in Indianapolis over the past decade.

In the United States, Rolls-Royce employs more than 5,000 people and supports hundreds of American suppliers in 34 locations across 26 states. Rolls-Royce operations contributed $6.2 billion to the U.S. economy in 2024.