Trump's tariffs could significantly increase the cost of video cards

President Donald Trump's tariffs on China could lead to a sharp increase in the cost of graphics cards. While processors and memory chips are exempt from the tariffs, the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) says graphics cards are not exempt, PCMag reports.

Tariffs on China are now at 145%, after Trump on Wednesday increased reciprocal tariffs to 125% on top of the existing 20%. As a result of such actions, the US president has already faced criticism for raising the price of NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 and 5090. Now, problems will arise for other technology companies, as graphics cards are an important element for training large language models.

Now, many manufacturers are trying to shift their production from China to other markets, including Taiwan and Vietnam, where tariffs are 10% after Trump suspended reciprocal tariffs for 90 days.

Another issue is the classification of products by tariff code, which can make it difficult to understand which products are subject to tariffs. Investment bank UBS published a letter stating that graphics processors can avoid tariffs within the scope of reciprocal tariffs due to the exception of "Electronic integrated circuits: processors and controllers" under tariff code 8542.31.00.

At the same time, the CTA expects that video cards will still be subject to duties, as they are usually classified under a separate code 8473.3011 or 8473.30.1180, or under what is defined as "Printed circuit assemblies for rendering images onto computer screens."

It was also initially thought that graphics cards would escape the tariffs because the White House had made an exception for aluminum derivatives, including cases, which are subject to a 25% tariff. However, it later became clear that the federal order did not list item numbers 8473.3011 or 8473.30.1180 as subject to aluminum tariffs.

Manufacturers and suppliers will likely try to find additional workarounds by shipping GPUs as different semiconductors that are currently exempt from tariffs. However, this solution may be short-lived, as Trump has previously said he plans to impose tariffs on processors in the near future.