US President Donald Trump has again said he plans to impose "pretty significant" tariffs on semiconductor imports in the near future for companies that do not move production to the US. At the same time, he promised exceptions for companies like Apple that are actively investing in the country, CNBC reports.
Trump made the remarks at a White House dinner attended by more than two dozen tech executives, including Apple CEO Tim Cook, Meta co-founder Mark Zuckerberg and Oracle CEO Safra Katz. The president stressed that companies that build or plan to manufacture in the United States will avoid tariffs.
Last month, Trump announced his intention to impose a 100% tariff on chips, but with exceptions for businesses that localize production. Against this backdrop, Apple promised an additional $100 billion in investment in domestic manufacturing, adding to the $500 billion it had previously announced. At the dinner, Trump noted that Cook "would be in a good position" in the event of new tariffs.
Washington has been pushing for several years to bring chip supply chains back to the country. TSMC and Samsung have announced hundreds of billions of dollars in investments to build factories in the US since 2020. They are also expected to receive exemptions.
Despite the loud statements, the specific details of the tariff policy remain unknown. Meanwhile, other dinner guests, including Sam Altman of OpenAI and Sergey Brin of Google, expressed support for Trump for his pro-business stance and commitment to the development of AI.
Tesla's Elon Musk was not present, but said he had received an invitation and would send a representative. Before the dinner, First Lady Melania Trump stressed the importance of artificial intelligence for education and called for responsible use of technology.