Nexperia's pending acquisition of British chipmaker Newport Wafer Fab cost it a major contract with an Apple supplier.

The acquisition by the Chinese-owned company is currently being reviewed by the British government, put the process has been repeatedly delayed.

Apple supplier Rockley Photonics told The Telegraph that it was planning to use the Newport Wafer Fab to build its chips, having previously used the site for research.

But after the tentative takeover of the fab by Nexperia last year, Newport seems to have shifted to building more chips for its new parent company, reducing the amount of open-access space.

Rockley's head, Andrew Rickman, told The Telegraph that the company had to find alternative facilities and expand its US production.

He added: “It would have led to hundreds of jobs in the relatively short term. There would have been further investment in that site. We are talking about semiconductor manufacturing technology that could have been creating millions of chips per week.”

Nexperia denied the claims, saying: “There is not, and never has been, an integrated photonics manufacturing capability at the Newport site."

The company announced it would acquire the Newport Wafer Fab for a reported £63 million ($77m) in July 2021, but the deal has faced pushback due to Nexperia's Chinese links.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson requested that national security adviser Sir Stephen Lovegrove look at the deal last year, but it was not clear what the investigation involved. In May, the head of Wingtech traveled to UK in an effort to win over government officials.

Following the visit, an official "full national security assessment" was launched into the deal last week. The government was set to have 30 working days to carry out the assessment, but extended the review by another 45 working days earlier this month.