Trump is considering expanding the scope of semiconductor tariffs

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Chip Tariffs

According to CNBC citing Politico, eight informed sources revealed to the media that Trump is considering imposing a new round of tariffs on semiconductors. As a result of this news, the semiconductor supply chain was suppressed in early trading and failed to sustain the optimism led by Nvidia.

Politico reports that this round of tariffs will expand its scope from chips to a wider range of products. The targets include an entire category of tech products manufactured alongside chips, such as laptops, servers used in data centers, and even gaming hardware.

The report states that these new tariffs are still in the early stages, and significant changes may occur in the coming months. The implementation might be phased in, taking effect in batches rather than all at once.

The White House has not immediately responded to requests for comment, but told Politico that revitalizing semiconductor manufacturing is President Trump’s top priority, and Trump’s policies have secured hundreds of billions of dollars in investment for the US in this key industry.

Looking back, the existing US tariffs on Chinese semiconductors were introduced during the Biden administration. Trump stated last year that he would announce new tariffs on semiconductors and chips, intending to set the rate at about 100%. Companies building plants in the US would not have to pay this fee. However, the 100% tariff measure did not materialize at the time, and what was actually enacted was a 25% tariff on certain AI chips in January this year.

Politico further explained that, in addition to these tariffs, there is a parallel regulatory track operating. The US has strict export restrictions on chips, controlling the cross-border flow of the chips themselves. However, reports indicate that Chinese companies are still able to obtain Nvidia chips despite these restrictions.

Industry observers believe that a key reason why Chinese AI models can improve is that these companies can rent advanced computing power through overseas cloud service providers, so the chips themselves do not necessarily need to be imported into China.

Currently, the US is discussing legislation to block this channel. However, analysts previously told CNBC that there are still significant hurdles before such laws can really have an impact.

Jason believes that chips for gaming, notebooks, and those other than AI accelerators are not designed for AI cluster computing in terms of hardware design, drivers, or physical interfaces. They are legitimate consumer products and do not put pressure on AI competition. As for competitive chips, those that need to be regulated are already controlled, and the remaining gray channels are already on the legal margins and are difficult to fully regulate.

On the other hand, manufacturers assembling these non-AI chips into laptops, gaming consoles, and other electronic devices are mostly based in China. If tariffs are imposed on both sides, exporting consumer chips to China is one layer, and assembling them into laptops and selling them back to the US is another. With tariffs on both sides, most are aimed at consumer products, so apart from suppressing Chinese exports and reducing US consumption, how much strategic significance does this have?

Therefore, I believe Trump is more likely to be increasing leverage for upcoming negotiations. The negotiation aspect of this policy outweighs the actual tax enforcement, and even if it is implemented, it is more likely to be phased in with many exemptions (such as gaming consoles), and the actual scope may be much narrower than currently reported.