President Donald Trump warned computer makers Wednesday that he’ll soon hit them with a 100% tariff on chips and semiconductors imported into the United States. However, companies that make chips in the United States are exempt. Trump specifically called out Apple as one of the companies that will not be affected.
Processors for many Apple products are already produced in Arizona, and the company just announced a new deal with Samsung to make other types of chips in Texas.
Apple is immune to Trump’s 100% chip tariff
Trump charges tariffs on a wide variety of products produced globally and then imported into the United States with the stated goal of increasing production in America. However, there are no import taxes on chips while the Trump administration carries out a Section 232 investigation into how tariffs on these would affect the U.S. economy.
But Trump seems to have an answer and is about to slap hefty taxes on companies importing processors.
“We’re going to be putting a very large tariff on chips and semiconductors,” he said Wednesday. “But the good news for companies like Apple is if you’re building in the United States or have committed to build, without question, committed to build in the United States, there will be no charge.”
Apple’s share price gained almost 3% in overnight trading after this news. That comes after a 5.1% rise on Wednesday following news that Apple avoided new Trump tariffs on India.
Apple ❤️ America
Apple CEO Tim Cook is clearly working hard to demonstrate to Trump his company’s commitment to making products in the United States. Cook stood beside Trump on Tuesday while they announced an additional $100 billion investment in domestic manufacturing, on top of Apple’s previous $500 billion commitment. Among the results, the glass screens for all iPhones and Apple Watches sold anywhere in the world will be made in the United States.
In addition, Apple’s chipmaker TSMC is aggressively expanding its production facilities in Arizona, with a third foundry under construction. That’s a process that began years ago, under the Biden administration.
What about Samsung?
Some of the $100 billion investment in U.S. manufacturing Apple announced Tuesday goes into a chip manufacturing partnership with Samsung. The chips will be made in Texas.
This doesn’t mean Samsung will replace TSMC as the maker of CPUs for iPhones and Macs. An unconfirmed report out of Asia indicates Samsung will produce camera sensors for Apple in the United States … a reminder that a wide array of semiconductors go into computers beyond the CPU.
Whether Samsung is doing enough to evade Trump’s 100% semiconductor tariff on its Android handsets is an open question. The president revealed almost no details about the upcoming import tax, other than that it won’t hit Apple.
Ed Hardy has been writing full-time about tech for 25 years, and using it for much longer than that. His intro to Apple was a Macintosh Classic II (which he still has), but now he uses a 13-inch iPad Pro as his primary computer. He’s written for NotebookReview, TabletPCReview, and Brighthand, as well as other sites.
