Nijmegen-based semi-conductor maker Nexperia confirmed reports on Friday that it had been hacked, saying cyber criminals had managed to access its IT servers in March.

“We promptly took action and disconnected the affected systems from the internet to contain the incident and implemented extensive mitigation,” the company said.

“We also launched an investigation with the support of third-party experts to determine the nature and scope of the incident and took strong measures to terminate the unauthorised access.”

The hack has also been reported to the privacy watchdog AP and the police, and both are being kept informed of the ongoing investigation, Nexperia said. The company said it could not disclose more about the probe.

However, according to RTL Nieuws, hundreds of gigabytes of important information, including chip designs and customer information about the likes of SpaceX, Apple and Huawei, were stolen.

The hack was carried out by a “relatively new group” of cyber criminals, who placed several confidential documents on the dark web as proof. However, they are threatening to publish “the crown jewels” of the company unless a ransom is paid, RTL said.

Nexperia, a spin off from NXP, is based in the Netherlands but now owned by Wingtech, a partly Chinese state-backed company listed in Shanghai. It was bought by the Chinese in 2019.