Trump Weighs Expanded Semiconductor Tariffs, Posts on Truth Social to Encourage Investment
According to a report from Politico, a Washington-focused outlet, the Trump administration is considering sweeping additional tariffs covering not only semiconductors but also laptops, personal computers, and data center servers. The plan reportedly includes tiered tariff-free allowances for semiconductors based on the scale of U.S. investment, and could scrap existing exemptions for data centers and R&D startups. Industry voices noted that expanding advanced chip manufacturing capacity in the U.S. takes more than five years, making implementation difficult, and raised concerns that Nvidia, AMD, and others reliant on TSMC's foundry services could face a heavier burden.
Around the same time, President Trump posted on Truth Social congratulating Nvidia on its strong earnings while emphasizing that its manufacturing was done entirely in the U.S., and reiterated Micron's earlier announcement of a $10 billion U.S. research facility to encourage domestic investment. The same day, SK Hynix held a groundbreaking ceremony for its Indiana plant, announcing an investment of over $4 billion with clean room operations targeted for October 2028 and HBM mass production for 2029.
Many assessments suggested this tariff review is unlikely to result in an actual levy. The reasoning is that if tariffs were imposed, companies importing semiconductors would ultimately bear the cost, which would simply pass through to higher prices for laptops, phones, and data centers, with little reshoring effect on chip manufacturing itself. It was also noted that with Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix already pursuing their own U.S. investment plans, there is limited room for them to commit to additional large-scale investment.
Some viewed the tariff review as a political move. With President Trump's approval rating stuck in the mid-30% range and Iran policy and inflation management cited as his weakest areas, the interpretation was that he is reviving his familiar rhetoric of returning tariff revenue to the public, this time applied to the semiconductor and AI sector. However, it was also noted that Korea, already facing pressure to expand investment under last year's investment agreement with the U.S., needs to watch for the risk that semiconductors could resurface as a bargaining chip in negotiations. Separately, an exclusive report noted that Korea and the U.S. remain at odds over how to allocate returns from Korea's U.S. investments, with Korea pushing for a profit-and-loss offset approach across projects and the U.S. insisting on project-by-project settlement.