On Wednesday, the Trump Administration announced tariffs on most countries that trade with the United States, including Taiwan. However, the White House said it does not apply to semiconductors.
That’s good news as major electronics firms in the U.S. rely upon the world’s largest chipmaker and foundry Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) for their processors, AI chips, smartphone ICs, electronic components and discrete components. This includes heavyweight vendors:
- Apple
- Nvidia
- AMD
- Qualcomm
- Broadcom
- Amazon
- Marvell
With TSMC set to begin manufacturing chips in the U.S. when it completes its fabs in Arizona — five semiconductor fabs, two packaging facilities and an R&D center — and spending about $165 billion, the tariffs may eventually apply to chips as the administration encourages domestic manufacturing.
