President Trump discusses 25% chip tariffs, Taiwan chip companies plan shift to US production

President Trump has ensured that semiconductor tariffs on chips imported into the US would increase higher over the course of 2025, with new details on the tariffs shared during a press briefing at Mar-A-Lago.

2

During the press briefing, President Trump was initially asked about tariffs for the automotive industry, but when pressed about his future plans for semiconductors and pharmaceuticals, President Trump said that the tariffs will "be 25% and higher" and that the tariffs would "go very substantially higher over a course of a year".

The US government will give chip companies the time to relocate their production to the United States, with President Trump adding that "we wanna give them time to come in" and that when the companies "come into the United States and they have their plant or factory here, there is no tariff".

President Trump continued, adding that his administration wants to give chip companies "a little bit of a chance" before applying the semiconductor tariffs, as it would disrupt the entire semiconductor industry.

• Read more: President Trump might not support Intel's US chip factories being operated by foreign entities
• Read more: US gov gives TSMC multiple alternatives for future in USA, tech transfer with Intel
• Read more: President Trump says Taiwan 'took our chip business away, and we want that business back'

Furthermore, Taiwanese service companies are forming their plans to shift production to the United States, with the Economic Daily reporting that 7 major AI server makers in Taiwan recently visited Texas to discuss future investments in the US. These companies include Taiwanese AI server giants Pegatron, Wistron, Quanta Computer, Wiwynn and Inventec, with plans to announce their US investment plans before May 10.

Taiwanese companies estimate that the cost of acquiring land and building semiconductor factories would cost around $2 billion, while adding that automating equipment can boost those costs to somewhere between $3 billion and $5 billion. Most of these Taiwanese AI server companies have operations in Mexico, and are concerned over Trump's new tariffs.