US President Donald Trump declared a 100% tariff on imported semiconductors while unveiling significant exemptions for companies manufacturing within the United States or those committed to establishing American production facilities, according to Reuters.
The policy, announced during an Oval Office briefing on 6 August, forms part of a broader strategy to repatriate advanced technology manufacturing and coincided with Apple’s confirmation of an additional $100 billion investment in its domestic operations.
For companies like Apple that committed to build in the US Trump pledged “no charge”, though he warned retroactive penalties would apply if firms renege on factory commitments.
“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,” the president stated.
The announcement triggered immediate volatility across global supply chains, though critical details, including implementation timelines and precise eligibility criteria, remain undefined. The tariff framework emerges alongside broader US levies of 10–50% activated on Thursday against dozens of trading partners and precedes mid-August findings from a national security probe into semiconductor imports.
South Korea’s trade envoy swiftly clarified that Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix would avoid the 100% duty under existing bilateral agreements, securing “the most favourable levies” for Korean semiconductors.
Similarly, Taiwan’s National Development Council Minister Liu Chin-ching highlighted proactive investments by Taiwanese firms, including TSMC’s Arizona fabrication plants, as insulation against tariffs. TSMC’s US-made chips safeguard clients like Nvidia, which plans hundreds of billions in domestic investment.
Conversely, nations lacking US production footholds face severe disruption. Philippine Semiconductor Industry President Dan Lachica predicted “devastating” consequences for his country, while Malaysia’s Trade Minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz warned of lost competitiveness in chip testing and packaging, a sector where Malaysia commands about 13% and plans to reach 15% of global market share by 2030.
After the announcement, Asian chipmakers with US investments surged. TSMC shares rose 4.4%, Samsung gained 2%, and silicon wafer producer GlobalWafers, which operates a Texas plant, jumped 10%.
