In the very first week of his presidency, Donald Trump vowed to force silicon manufacturing back to the United States by making processors more expensive, a threat heâs repeated since. Is he finally going through with that plan? Trump just announced heâll putting an enormous 100 percent tariff on chips and semiconductors â unless your company kisses the ring like Apple CEO Tim Cook just did, perhaps.
Weâre going to be putting a very large tariff on chips and semiconductors, but the good news for companies like Apple is if youâre building in the United States or have committed to build without question in the United States, there will be no charge.
And, itâs possible that other companies already have, or easily will, meet Trumpâs bar for participation. Trump told the in-person and online audience that even a commitment to invest in US manufacturing may be enough to escape the tariffs. â[If youâre building in the United States of America, thereâs no charge, even though youâre building and not producing yet,â he said. âIf youâve made a commitment to build or youâre in the process of building, as many are, there is no tariff, OK?â
Hereâs our transcript of Trumpâs full remarks on the topic:
Weâll be putting a tariff on of approximately 100 percent, on chips and semiconductors. But if youâre building in the United States of America, thereâs no charge, even though youâre building and not producing yet, in terms of the big numbers of jobs and all of the things that youâre building. If youâre building there will be no charge [âŠ] 100 percent tariff on all chips and semiconductors coming into the United States, but if youâve made a commitment to build or youâre in the process of building, as many are, there is no tariff, OK? If for some reason you say youâre building and you donât build then we go back and add it up, it accumulates and we charge you at a later date. You have to pay, and thatâs a guarantee.
Itâs hard to think which companies a new chip tariff would apply to, as most major chipmakers already have at least some small commitment to US manufacturing. Taiwanâs TSMC, which accounts for the vast majority of leading-edge chips and drew Trumpâs ire as a result, announced a $100 billion US investment back in March.
Or, perhaps, is Trump threatening tariffs on the makers of products that use chips rather than the makers of chips themselves? Apple isnât exactly a chipmaker, after all; it does design its own chips but relies on companies like TSMC to actually make them.
In July, AMD CEO Lisa Su revealed that TSMCâs US-made chips would cost it an extra 5 to 20 percent more than ones made overseas.
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