The GeForce RTX 5090, a new flagship “Blackwell” GPU for gamers, creators, and developers that NVIDIA will be launching this week to deliver what it says is a new world of AI computer graphics for $1,999, may soon seem like a pretty sweet deal despite costing $400 more than its predecessor, the Ada-based GeForce RTX 4090, according to the latest word from President Trump about how he plans to implement a tariff on chips made in Taiwan, one that could reach as high as 100% and affect a wide range of consumer electronics, including video game consoles, smartphones, and graphics cards for PCs.
“In particular, in the very near future, we’re going to be placing tariffs on foreign production of computer chips, semiconductors and pharmaceuticals to return production of these essential goods to the United States,” Trump said during a speech at the Trump National Doral Gulf Club in Miami yesterday before going on to reference the world’s most valuable semiconductor company, TSMC. “They left us and went to Taiwan.”
“We want them to come back. And we don’t want to give them billions of dollars like this ridiculous program that Biden has given everybody billions of dollars,” he explained. “They already have billions of dollars. They’ve got nothing but money Joe. They didn’t need money.”
“They needed an incentive,” Trump continued during his speech, a copy of which can be found below. “And the incentive is gonna be they’re not gonna wanna pay a 25, 50 or even a 100 % tax.”
Trump announces he will be putting tariffs on semiconductors pic.twitter.com/miymN8aPMh
— Acyn (@Acyn) January 27, 2025
“This might be the first actual America first move he made,” reads a response from a critic. “The big problem is the timing, it’s backwards. Build the semiconductor manufacturing first, then put the tariffs.”
“Just before the switch 2 release? Come on man,” another commented.
“TSMC announced that the U.S. Department of Commerce and TSMC Arizona have signed a non-binding preliminary memorandum of terms (PMT) for up to US$6.6 billion in direct funding under the CHIPS and Science Act. TSMC also announced plans to build a third fab at TSMC Arizona to meet strong customer demand leveraging the most advanced semiconductor process technology in the United States,” reads a press release that TSMC shared in April 2024 about one of its ongoing projects, one that the company had expected to create approximately 6,000 jobs and bring domestically made semiconductor products to U.S. companies.
“As the company makes progress in completing its first fab and continues construction of its second fab at its Arizona subsidiary, the third fab brings TSMC’s total capital expenditure for the Phoenix, Arizona site to more than US$65 billion, making the site the largest foreign direct investment in Arizona history, and the largest foreign direct investments in a greenfield project in U.S. history,” TSMC noted.
A timeline for the TSMC Arizona project, which spans from May 2020 to April 2024 at the time of this posting, can be found here.