The technical rates arrive. Why 100% charges had 0% impact

Copyright © HT Digital Streams Limit all rights reserved. Adam Levine, Barrons 4 min Read 09 Aug 2025, 11:25 am Ist Apple CEO Tim Cook, Reg, with President Donald Trump and others in the Oval Office of the White House Wednesday. (AFP) Summary The long -awaited technical rates have finally arrived this past week. In a clear sign of the times, the market still agreed. The long-awaited and dreaded Tech rates have finally arrived this past week. And in a clear sign of the times, the market conceded despite the cloud of uncertainty that was not clear. President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday afternoon in the Oval Office with Apple CEO Tim Cook, which he says will be a new tariff of ‘about 100% on chips and semiconductors’. But “If you are building or being committed to building in the United States, without a doubt that is committed to building in the United States, there will be no cost. In other words, we will not load.” Apple will be one of the recipients of this greatness, and the stock rose 3.2% on Thursday. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index, or Sox, was 1.5% higher that day than investors trying to sort what the president meant. But very remain uncertain. “All we can do at this point is to highlight a few questions, rather than giving answers; we hope we will get more concrete details soon,” Bernstein analyst Stacy Rasgon wrote to clients on Thursday. ‘Skips and semiconductors’ is a phrase that has had an elastic definition since April. The Sox started 28%this year, and on April 8 under the knee of the global rates under the International Emergency Economic Powers, which is disputed in court. The IEEPA tariffs were adjusted twice by the administration, most recently on Thursday, when rates of 10% on UK imports came into effect to 41% for Syria. Goods already on the water will see the previous Teepa tax of 10%. But in April, the White House released a series of technical goods, after which the administration called ‘semiconductors’, but also included completed goods such as smartphones, computers and artificial intelligence servers. In total, it is $ 386 billion of 2024 imports, 12% of the US total. Chips was only $ 45 billion of that. For technical investors, however, IEEPA was only the opening law, with everyone waiting for the White House to make a decision on how to launch these technical goods known by a national security authority, known as Article 232. The good news for Apple is perhaps bad news for other technical companies, as Apple’s exclusion of the Section 232 charges indicates that the White House is not just talking about chips; All the imports of Apple in the US are completed products, not semiconductors. However, Apple is a 20% tax on all its devices imported from China, with no rates of products coming from India or Vietnam. Apple paid rates in the third quarter of $ 800 million, which increased its cost-of-good-sale for products by 1.9%. It projected $ 1.1 billion to customs duties in the fourth quarter. In the future, much of the definition of “committed to building in the United States.” Apple seems to have met this brand, but who else will earn Trump’s favor, and how much will it cost them? Are fixed investments needed, or will other types of expenses count? Apple counts its purchases from an American Corning factory, so domestic cost-of-good-sale seems to be part of the mix. From a perspective on the country, all the exemptions can flow back as soon as the math comes out. If Taiwan semi -led products are released from the semiconductor rates because it has a ‘more a’ more a slide capacity in Arizona, US customers such as Apple, Nvidia and advanced micro -devices may wonder why they pay for products from Arizona factories. AMD CEO Lisa Sud recently said that the company will pay 5% to 20% more for the Arizona chips compared to the same work in Taiwan. Trump’s phrasing, ‘committed to building’, may also indicate that the existing investments in the US may not be able to count on everything needed to achieve the president. Like all this, we are waiting for guidance from the White House. For companies that do not meet Trump’s requests, their experience will differ from country to country because of the transactions entered into with the European Union, South Korea and perhaps Japan. The EU, via a Trump executive order, will face a 15% tariff on semiconductors. Meanwhile, Howard Lutnick, secretary of trade, tweeted that South Korea would see a semiconductor tariff that is no worse than any other country, which would be the EU’s 15%. Japan’s best trade negotiator, Ryosei Akazawa, said Japan has a similar arrangement, but there is no confirmation from the US side yet. The new uncertainty is underlined by the releases around the most important technical property in the world: AI servers. For the time being, these products are exempt from IEEPA rates, but not the new 100% Article 232. Nvidia, the designer of the most important AI servers, is likely to receive an exemption from the company from Article 232. The problem for Nvidia is that its servers are made by companies that may not be released from Article 232. Where can it leave the products of the world’s most valuable company? I have no idea. And not Wall Street either. “We make no changes to our estimates, ratings or price goals at this time,” Rasgon wrote on Thursday. Write to Adam Levine at [email protected], catch all the business news, market news, news reports and latest news updates on Live Mint. Download the Mint News app to get daily market updates. More Topics #semiconductors #donald Trump #Tariff Hike Read Next Story