Trump eyes “substantial” tariffs on chip imports

September 05, 2025 (MLN): U.S. President Donald Trump has reiterated his warning that he will soon impose “fairly substantial” tariffs on semiconductor imports from companies that do not shift production to the United States, while sparing firms like Apple that expand domestic investments.

Trump made the comments Thursday night during a dinner at the White House with more than two dozen major tech leaders, including Apple CEO Tim Cook, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and Oracle CEO Safra Catz.

“I’ve discussed it with the people here, chips and semiconductors, and we’ll be putting tariffs on companies that aren’t coming in,” the President said.

“We’ll be putting a tariff very shortly. You probably are hearing we’ll be putting a fairly substantial tariff, or not that high, but a fairly substantial tariff.”

Last month, Trump said during an event with Cook that he would impose a 100% tariff on semiconductor imports, while exempting products from companies that move their manufacturing to the U.S.

At the time, Apple pledged to spend an additional $100 billion on a domestic manufacturing initiative, adding to a $500 billion announcement made in February.

During Thursday’s event, Trump noted that “Tim Cook would be in pretty good shape,” regarding the potential import levies.

The U.S. has been working to onshore its semiconductor supply chain for years.

Since 2020, the world’s largest chipmakers, including TSMC and Samsung Electronics, have committed hundreds of billions of dollars to building plants in the U.S.

These companies are expected to receive exemptions under Trump’s potential tariffs, as CNBC reported.

However, many aspects of the tariffs and exceptions for companies investing in the U.S. remain unclear.

Trump provided few details, saying only that “if they’re coming in, building, planning to come in, there will not be a tariff.”

The dinner also saw tech leaders from OpenAI’s Sam Altman to Google co-founder Sergey Brin praise Trump for his pro-business and AI stances.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who had a public spat with Trump in June, was not present. Musk later said on his social media platform X that he was invited but could not attend, and would send a representative.

Before the dinner, First Lady Melania Trump addressed the second meeting of the White House Task Force on Artificial Intelligence Education, joined by senior administration officials and tech CEOs.

She highlighted the importance of AI in education and American progress, while emphasizing that “we must manage AI’s growth responsibly.”

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