Trump plans 100% tariff on chips with carveout for Apple, others

[WASHINGTON] US Donald Trump said that he would impose a 100 per cent tariff on imports that include semiconductors, though he would exempt companies moving production back to the United States, as Apple CEO Tim Cook and the president announced a fresh US$100 billion investment plan from the Oval Office.

“We are going to be putting a very large tariff on chips and semiconductors, but the good news for companies such as Apple is, if you are building in the United States, or have committed to build, without question, committed to build in the United States, there will be no charge,” Trump told reporters.

“So in other words, we will be putting a tariff of approximately 100 per cent on chips and semiconductors. But if you are building in the United States of America, there’s no charge,” Trump said. “Even though you are building and you are not producing yet, in terms of the big numbers of jobs and all of the things building, if you are building, there will be no charge.”

The announcement amounts to a major victory for Apple and Cook, who have faced escalating threats from Trump’s tariffs that threatened to ratchet up the cost of producing their signature phones and computers.

Apple’s US$100 billion investment will include a new manufacturing programme designed to bring more of Apple’s production to the US. The company’s American Manufacturing Programme partners include glassmaker Corning , Applied Materials, Texas Instruments and others, the company said.

Corning will dedicate an entire factory in Kentucky to Apple glass production, increasing that company’s workforce in the state by 50 per cent, the iPhone maker said. Corning was already a supplier to Apple, making glass for the very first iPhone at the same factory.

Apple had previously pledged to spend US$500 billion in the US over the next four years, a slight acceleration over its prior investments and previously announced plans, adding about US$39 billion in spend and an additional 1,000 jobs annually. The announcement will bring Apple’s cumulative commitment to US$600 billion.

The previously planned US$500 billion is said to include work on a new server manufacturing facility in Houston, a supplier academy in Michigan and additional spending with its existing suppliers in the country.

The increased pledge comes as Trump escalates a tariff push that’s set to raise costs for Apple throughout its international supply chains.

Trump plans to whack India, a key production market for Apple, with 50 per cent tariffs, the first half of which takes effect just after midnight alongside a raft of other country-specific levies designed to reduce trade imbalances. The other half, to penalise India for buying Russian energy, will take effect later this month.

The president has said that he could unveil separate levies on all products containing semiconductor chips as soon as next week.

Cook, who attended the president’s inauguration and donated to his inaugural committee, has pushed for tariff exemptions for his company’s iPhones. Most iPhones sold in the US come from India, while the bulk of other products, including Apple Watches, iPads and MacBooks, are manufactured in Vietnam, which was hit with a 20 per cent tariff.

Cook’s investment echoes dozens of pledges from companies since Trump won the 2024 presidential election, with CEOs flying to his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, and then to the White House once he was sworn in, to court the new administration and announce hundreds of billions of US dollars worth of new deals.

Many of these investments were already in the works prior to the November election, or were on par with previous investment trends, Bloomberg previously reported. Economists have also questioned whether all of the pledged spending and associated job opportunities, will come to fruition.

Apple’s promised investments, while substantial, fall short of the full shift to US-based production that Trump and top White House officials have envisioned and encouraged. Earlier this year, the president threatened to impose a tariff of at least 25 per cent on Apple if it did not move manufacturing of the iPhone to the US, a day after he met with Cook at the White House.

Cook, in a call with analysts last week, said that while Apple tries to optimise its supply chain, ultimately the company will “do more” in the United States. BLOOMBERG