US President Donald Trump has announced plans to impose significant duties on computer chips made in Taiwan, in particular, those produced by TSMC. Speaking at a meeting with Republicans, Trump said that the duties could reach 100% to encourage the return of semiconductor production to the United States, PC Mag reports.
“In particular, in the very near future, we’re going to be placing tariffs on foreign production of computer chips, semiconductors and pharmaceuticals to return production of these essential goods to the United States,” Trump said.
Trump specifically mentioned the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), which supplies chips to such American tech giants as Apple, NVIDIA, Qualcomm, and AMD. Although TSMC has already opened a fab in Arizona, much of its production is still concentrated in Taiwan.
“They left us and went to Taiwan,” Trump said, emphasizing his dissatisfaction with the dependence of American technology companies on foreign chip production.
Trump also criticized the "Chip and Science Act" signed by the Biden administration, which allocated $52 billion to stimulate domestic semiconductor production. The funding went to companies such as Intel, which was allocated $7.9 billion to expand its factories in Arizona, New Mexico, Oregon, and Ohio.
“And we don’t want to give them billions of dollars like this ridiculous program that Biden has given everybody billions of dollars. They already have billions of dollars,” Trump said. “They didn’t need money. They needed an incentive. And the incentive is gonna be they’re not gonna wanna pay a 25, 50 or even a 100 % tax,” Trump added.
Although Trump's strategy of imposing tariffs is aimed at stimulating domestic production, the construction of new semiconductor factories could take years, potentially causing short-term disruptions and higher prices for electronics that depend on TSMC chips.
Depending on how customs policies are implemented, this could create additional challenges. TSMC chips are usually not exported directly to the US, but to China or other Asian countries, where they are assembled into electronics for the US market.