President Donald Trump just announced a 100% tariff on foreign-made semiconductors in a bid to force companies to build their chips within the United States or order them from local fabs. According to the Associated Press, Trump made this announcement at the Oval Office after Apple’s Tim Cook promised an additional $100 billion in investments to avoid chip tariffs for iPhones.
“We’ll be putting a tariff of approximately 100% on chips and semiconductors. But if you’re building in the United States of America, there’s no charge,” says Trump. When a reporter asked him how all of these announced investments would impact the American people, the president answered, “We have the biggest chip companies — the both of them — but we have the biggest in the world coming in. They’re going to Arizona and beyond. And in a short period of time, we’ll be [making] up to almost 50% of the chips, starting from nothing.”
