Trump To Tariff Chips Made In Taiwan, Targeting TSMC

The tariffs would ensnare cutting-edge smartphone and PC-related chips for Apple, AMD and Nvidia if enacted. But Trump is betting his plan will bring more chip production to the US.

By Michael Kan January 28, 2025

President Trump is preparing to place tariffs beyond Chinese assembled electronics to computer chips made in Taiwan, warning the tariffs could reach as high as 100%.

“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 in a speech to Republicans on Monday.

“They left us and went to Taiwan,” he then said in an apparent reference to how many of the leading US tech companies have been sourcing their processors from Taiwan’s TSMC, a top semiconductor manufacturer. TSMC has established a factory in Arizona, but much of its chip production remains in Taiwan, where it’s been serving clients including Apple, Nvidia, Qualcomm and AMD, among others.

“We want them to come back,” Trump said before slamming the US’s CHIPS and Science Act, which his predecessor President Biden signed to invest over $52 billion in domestic chip manufacturing.

“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’ve got nothing but money Joe. 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.”

“They’re gonna build their factory with their own money. We don’t have to give them money,” Trump added, later claiming: “They’re giving the money, they don’t even know what they’re going to do with it.”

The recipients of the funding, such as Intel, might disagree. Last year, Intel received $7.9 billion from the CHIPS Act, which will go toward expanding its factories in Arizona, New Mexico, Oregon and Ohio, where the company is building a new chip manufacturing hub. Even so, Trump is betting his tariff threat will push more US tech companies into migrating their chip manufacturing to the US over Taiwan.