President Donald Trump will not tolerate the imports of semiconductors to the United States it seems. Trump said the United States will impose a tariff of about 100% on imports of semiconductors but offered up a big exemption — it will not apply to companies that are manufacturing in the U.S. or have committed to do so.
Trump has been working hard to persuade semiconductor manufacturers all over the world to set up shop in the U.S. Threats have been his most preferred tools.
In early 2025, global semiconductor giants significantly expanded their investment commitments in the United States, driven by a mix of geopolitical concerns, supply chain rebalancing, and the incentives offered under the CHIPS and Science Act. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) announced an additional $100 billion investment in Arizona, bringing its total U.S. outlay to $165 billion. This expansion includes three new fabrication plants, two advanced packaging facilities, and a major R&D hub.
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Micron Technology increased its previously planned U.S. investments to a staggering $200 billion, focused on memory chip production in Idaho and New York, with additional capacity upgrades in Virginia. These moves are designed to help the U.S. capture a greater share of global semiconductor manufacturing, particularly in high-performance computing and memory segments.
Other key players followed suit. Samsung finalized a $37 billion deal to build two chip fabs and an R&D facility in Taylor, Texas, backed by over $4.7 billion in CHIPS Act grants. Nvidia, traditionally a fabless company, began developing its first U.S.-based manufacturing and AI supercomputing facilities, covering over one million square feet in Texas and Arizona. Together, these early-2025 pledges reflect a strategic realignment of the global semiconductor supply chain, with the U.S. re-emerging as a central hub for next-generation chip innovation and production.
For companies like Apple, which have committed to build in the United States, “there will be no charge,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
“If, for some reason, you say you’re building and you don’t build, then we go back and we add it up, it accumulates, and we charge you at a later date, you have to pay, and that’s a guarantee,” he added.
Trump’s firm stance on imposing a 100% tariff on semiconductor imports, with exemptions for companies investing in U.S. manufacturing, signals a bold shift in America’s industrial policy. This approach aims to aggressively incentivize global semiconductor giants to build and expand facilities on American soil, reshaping the industry’s supply chain landscape. By tying tariff exemptions to concrete investment commitments, the U.S. government is sending a clear message that it will prioritize domestic production and technological self-reliance in a sector crucial for national security and economic competitiveness.
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For semiconductor companies, this policy presents both challenges and opportunities. Firms willing to invest heavily in U.S. facilities, like TSMC, Micron, Samsung, and Nvidia, stand to benefit from tariff relief and access to lucrative government incentives. However, the threat of punitive tariffs on imports places pressure on companies that rely on overseas manufacturing, pushing them to accelerate their U.S. expansion plans or face significant cost increases. This dynamic fosters a strategic realignment of the global semiconductor industry, encouraging innovation and job creation in the U.S. but also potentially increasing production costs.
“There’s so much serious investment in the United States in chip production that much of the sector will be exempt,” said Martin Chorzempa, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.
“If these tariffs were applied without a component tariff, it might not make much difference,” he said.