Trump strives for chipmakers with a new plan to stop the import

Copyright © HT Digital Streams Limit all rights reserved. Amrith Ramkumar, The Wall Street Journal 3 min Read 26 Sept 2025, 11:26 am ist production at a micron technology facility in Boise, Idaho. Photo: Kyle Green/Bloomberg News Summarize the administration wants domestic manufacturing to match imports and will impose rates on the companies that do not increase production. The Trump administration weighs a new plan to dramatically reduce the US confidence in semiconductors made overseas, in the hope of encouraging domestic manufacturing and forming global supply chains. The purpose of the policy is to have Chip enterprises manufactured the same number of semiconductors in the US as their clients import from overseas producers. Companies that do not maintain a 1: 1 relationship over time will have to pay a rate according to people who are familiar with the concept. The plan is the result of what President Trump referred to last month when he said that technical companies that invest more in the US would avoid about 100% rates on semiconductors, people said. The matching capacity of household chips with imports is a larger order than simply increasing domestic investment because overseas products are often cheaper, it is difficult to cater, and raising the US offer is taking time. If implemented, the plan can further complicate an already transferred tariff system. Howard Lutnick, Secretary of Trade, discussed the idea with managers of the semiconductor industry and told them that it was necessary for economic safety, people said. Administration officials have been worried for many years that US technology companies are too much dependent on slides made overseas, especially in Taiwan, about 80 kilometers from China mainland and considered vulnerable to Chinese aggression or natural disasters that can cause the technology supply chains to stir. Technical managers are focused on the issue because slides are ubiquitous in the modern economy and everything from smartphones to car power. Companies regularly send slides manufactured in the US overseas to compile in technical products. It is then returned as components in the larger products, which makes the tariff implementation challenging. It cannot be determined how tariff value would be calculated for products that contain chips, and the plan can still change. “America cannot depend on foreign imports for the semiconductor products that are essential for our national and economic safety,” said Kush Desai, Withuis spokesman. “Unless the administration is officially announced, however, any reporting on our policy must be considered speculative.” Under the new system, if a company promised to build one million chips in the US, it would essentially be credited with the amount over time, so that the company and its customers could import until the plant was completed without paying rates, people said. At the beginning of the process, there can be relief to give businesses time to adjust and increase US capacity, people said. The process can challenge the largest technical companies such as Apple and Dell Technologies, which import products that contain a number of different slides from all over the world. Under the proposed system, businesses will have to potentially watch where all the chips are made and work with chipmakers to suit the number of us and overseas products over time. It could be a prosperity for companies that increase US production, such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Micron Technology and Globalfunders, which would have more leverage in conversations with clients. The release process can test the relationship between the president and technical managers, which has promised hundreds of billions of dollars to new US investments to call on him. Trump praised Apple CEO Tim Cook last month for raising US investments after criticizing him earlier this year for still making iPhones abroad. The company and industry analysts said it was unrealistic to manufacture it in America. The administration is conducting a trade investigation into how the imports of slides affect national security and are expected to announce the new chip charges after it is closed. The US has granted billions of dollars to grants and other subsidies through the 2022 disk law, but some companies have complained that their customers are still reluctant to pay more for US manufactured products if they can go overseas. The new plan would be part of the Trump administration’s attempt to tackle the problem, and use the threat of rates to push businesses to buy more US chips. Depending on how it is implemented, the plan on roadblocks may face if some highly advanced or specialty products cannot be made easily in the US, writes to Amrith Ramkumar at [email protected] all the technological news and updates on live currency. Download the Mint News app to get daily market updates and live business news. More topics #semiconductors Read the following story