(Photo illustration by Cheng Xin/Getty Images)
President Trump shocked PC builders on Wednesday by announcing plans for a 100% tariff on foreign chips. But it’s possible that the major semiconductor manufacturers headquartered in Asia, TSMC and Samsung, will be exempt.
On Thursday, a minister for Taiwan’s government reportedly said he expects TSMC to be spared from the tariffs due to the company’s commitments to build new fabs in the US. “TSMC is exempted from the chip tariffs because it has set up plants in the US,” said Liu Chin-ching, minister in charge of the National Development Council, according to Bloomberg.
On the same day, a top trade negotiator for the South Korean government said he expects Samsung Electronics and memory maker SK Hynix to be exempt as well, according to Reuters.
Trump himself mentioned an exemption mechanism from the chip-focused tariffs. While speaking at the White House next to Apple CEO Tim Cook, he said: “100% tariff on all chips and semiconductors coming into the United States. But if you’ve made a commitment to build or are in the process of building, as many of you are, there’s no tariff.”
As a result, many leading tech companies may avoid the tariffs and spare consumers from price hikes. For example, Apple announced a $600 billion investment over the next four years to create more manufacturing facilities and jobs in the US.
Meanwhile, TSMC, which manufactures chips for Apple, Nvidia, and AMD, has plans to build six new fabs in Arizona. In April, Nvidia also announced it’s establishing two new Texas factories focused on manufacturing parts for AI supercomputers.
Still, the Trump administration hasn’t released any details on the chip-focused tariffs. The president has merely said they could arrive as soon as next week.