Trump’s Tariffs Are Threatening the US Semiconductor Revival

Silicon Valley breathed on Wednesday when it learned that President Donald Trump Tariff Bonanja Includes discounts for semiconductors, which will not be subject to at least higher import tariffs. However, just three days later, some US technology companies can see that the lofol actually creates more problems than solving. The White House after the announcement of tariff Revealed a list It does not affect the products that say and do not include different types of chip related products.

This means that only a small number of American manufacturers will be able to continue chips sourcing without factor as the cause of higher import expenditures. Most of the semiconductors currently arriving in the United States have already packaged on product Artificial intellect Model. And the manufacturing equipment that used to produce chips in the United States could not be avoided.

“If you are a major chip producer who is making a huge investment in the United States, one hundred billion dollars will buy you much less in the next few years than the last few years,” says Martin Chorzempa, senior Fellow of the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

The US Commerce Department did not respond to any request for commenting.

A senior analyst covered by a semiconductor of Burnstein Research, Stacy Rasgon says the narrow exceptions of the chips will not work very little to ignite the broad negative effects on the industry. Most semiconductor arrives at the US borders packaged on servers, smartphones and other products, the tariffs “40 percent of the combination of tariffs on that staff” as some of the ballparks “,” Rasgon says the overall import tariff rate.

Rasgan has noted that the semiconductor industry is deeply dependent on the overall health of other imports and the US economy, as the ingredients that produce are in different types of consumer products from the car to the refrigerator. “They are macro -xposed,” he says.

To determine the product applicable to the products, the Trump administration depends on a complex existing system called Harmonized Tariff Shidiul (HTS), which organizes several million different products sold in the US market in numeric categories that adjust to various import tariff rates. The White House Document listed a narrow group of HTS codes in the semiconductor case that it is exempted from the new tariff.

For example, GPUs are usually coded as 8473.30 or 8542.31 on the HTS system, Nancy Wei, a supply chain analyst of the consulting agency Eurasia Group. However, Trump’s discount is only applicable to the more advanced GPUs in the next 8542.31 section. It also does not cover other codes for computing hardware related types. Nvidia DGX systems, a pre-converted server with built-in GPU designed for AI computing functions, coded as 8471.50, according to OrganizationWhich means it is probably not exempted from tariffs.

The line may sometimes be unclear between these differences. In 2021, for example, the importer of the two NVDia GPU models asked the US authorities to clarify which departments under their departments. After viewing the matter, US duty and border protection That determined that The two GPUs belong to the 8473.30 division, which is not exempted from the tariff.