(Credit: Joseph Maldonado/PCMag)
President Trump's escalating tariffs on Chinese imports appear to affect graphics cards after all, risking drastic price increases for the crucial PC component.
Earlier this week, we reported that Trump's "reciprocal tariffs" appeared to spare graphic cards and other processors. But while it’s true CPUs and memory chips essentially received a waiver, the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) says GPUs face no such exemption.
“GPUs will receive the reciprocal tariff treatment (whatever that may be at the moment),” says CTA Research Director Rick Kowalski.
As a result, it looks like PC graphics cards imported from China will face a 145% tariff rate. On Wednesday, Trump escalated his reciprocal tariffs on China from 84% to 125%. The US was already imposing a 20% tariff rate on goods from the country, so it's now 145% in total.
(Photo by Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images)The tariffs threaten to unleash huge price hikes since graphics cards are often assembled in China. Trump’s earlier tariffs on the country are already being blamed for price increases on Nvidia's GeForce RTX 5080 and 5090 cards. Tariffs are also a huge headache for tech companies since enterprise-grade GPUs are driving generative AI training and development.
Puget Systems, a custom PC provider in Washington, is also bracing for Trump's tariffs to ensnare graphics cards. "Many parts we use are manufactured only in China at this point, which will have a large impact on prices of computers," the company wrote in a blog post.
(Puget Systems)That said, many manufacturers are trying to migrate their manufacturing to other markets, including Taiwan and Vietnam, which are facing a 10% duty amid Trump issuing a 90-day pause on his reciprocal tariffs for countries outside of China.
Translating the Tariff Codes
Understanding whether a product faces a tariff can be tricky since the US classifies products using tariff codes. Investment bank UBS released a note earlier this week, saying it’s possible GPUs won’t be tariffed under Trump’s reciprocal tariffs due to an exemption for “Electronic integrated circuits: processors and controllers” under the tariff code 8542.31.00.
However, the CTA expects GPUs will be tariffed because they’ve typically been classified under a separate tariff code, 8473.3011 or 8473.30.1180, or what’s defined as “Printed circuit assemblies for rendering images onto computer screens (‘graphics processing modules’).”
We originally thought GPUs were exempt from the reciprocal tariffs because the White House had a carve-out for aluminum derivative products, including PC cases, which were already being tariffed at 25%. But a closer look shows the federal order doesn’t list 8473.3011 or 8473.30.1180 as aluminum-tariffed items. Hence, graphics cards won’t receive an exemption, but other PC parts, such as cases for desktop towers, should, the CTA says.
It’s possible vendors could try to find workarounds by shipping their GPUs under the various semiconductors currently exempted under Trump’s order. This includes "Parts of electronic integrated circuits and micro assemblies." Still, the president says the exemption won’t last long as he plans to issue his chip-focused tariffs “very soon.”
Nvidia declined to comment.
Editor's note: This story has been updated with comment from Nvidia and Puget Systems.