Mr. Trump threatened to tax TSMC in a speech on April 8. Photo: Reuters . |
Speaking at an event of the Republican Congressional Committee on April 8 (local time), US President Donald Trump said he could impose a maximum tax of 100% on TSMC if the company does not build a chip factory in the US.
According to Reuters , Mr. Trump criticized the administration of former President Joe Biden for funding $6.6 billion under the CHIPS Act, supporting TSMC to build a factory in the US.
"These chip companies are very rich. They give billions of dollars to these companies to build factories in the United States, but in fact the companies do not build them in the United States," Mr. Trump said.
According to Business Insider , TSMC received funding to build three chip factories in Phoenix, Arizona. The first factory was behind schedule, but was completed and began producing chips last year.
In his speech, Mr. Trump said that semiconductor companies do not need money. The president convinced TSMC to expand production in the US without additional funding.
"I didn't give TSMC any money... I told them if they don't build a factory here, they're going to pay a big tax. It could be 25%, it could be 50%, it could be 75%, it could be 100%," Trump said.
In March, TSMC said it planned to invest $100 billion in the US, including building five chip factories in the coming time. It is the world's largest contract chipmaker.
Previously, Reuters reported that TSMC could face a fine of over $1 billion, related to a US export control investigation into a TSMC chip appearing in an AI processor from Huawei (China).
This is not the first time Mr. Trump has threatened companies with tariffs. During the September 2024 election campaign, he said he would impose a 200% tax on John Deere if the farm equipment company moved production to Mexico.
When it was released on April 2, the list of items subject to import tariffs did not include semiconductors. However, the Trump administration confirmed that it was preparing separate tariffs for industries such as semiconductors, pharmaceuticals and critical minerals.
"Tariffs on chips, pharmaceuticals will be announced and implemented in the near future," Mr. Trump said at the White House on April 3.
TSMC logo. Photo: Bloomberg . |
At that time, President Trump highly appreciated TSMC's investment in the US. He and his colleagues expected that companies that had committed to investing under the Joe Biden administration, such as Samsung, SK Hynix, and Global Wafers, would increase their investment.
Semiconductors are a complicated target for tariffs because of the uniqueness of their supply chains, according to the New York Times . Most advanced chips are manufactured on the island of Taiwan, but many are then sent to other countries like Malaysia for testing.
Next, the chip could go into iPhones or AI servers in Mexico or China before being sold around the world.
“Very few semiconductors are actually imported directly into the US, most are integrated into the final product,” said Jimmy Goodrich, a technology analysis consultant at the RAND Group.
Ming-Yen Ho, a member of a research institute in Taipei, emphasized that even TSMC chips made in Arizona still have to be exported from the US to be integrated into other devices before reaching users.
Source: https://znews.vn/ong-trump-doa-ap-thue-100-voi-tsmc-post1544479.html
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