On February 10, the Financial Times reported that the Trump administration plans to exempt companies including Amazon, Google and Microsoft from upcoming chip tariffs as these companies race to build data centers that will power the AI ​​boom.


TSMC U.S. factory

People familiar with the matter revealed,The U.S. Department of Commerce plans to provide tariff exemptions for ultra-large-scale cloud service providers, a move that will be linked to TSMC’s investment commitments.This exemption plan highlights Trump’s determination to impose chip tariffs and incentivize domestic chip manufacturing in the United States. It also provides some relief space for companies that support the rapid expansion of American AI. These companies rely heavily on imported semiconductors.

Trump has been using the threat of tariffs to promote the development of U.S. manufacturing, but has not imposed comprehensive tariffs on semiconductors from Taiwan because this will severely impact the AI ​​supply chain system of U.S. technology giants.

In January this year, the White House said it planned to impose "high" tariffs on chip importers. The new plan will allow TSMC to allocate exemptions from the next round of tariffs to its U.S. customers, and the level of exemptions will be linked to the scale of TSMC’s investment in the United States. The complex plan is aimed at pushing TSMC to move more production capacity to the United States. TSMC produces most of the world's high-end AI chips, and although its main manufacturing base is in Taiwan, the company has committed to investing $165 billion to build production capacity in the United States.

A U.S. government official familiar with the plans emphasized that the plan is still in flux and has not yet been signed by Trump. The official said: "After the plan is announced, we will pay close attention to subsequent developments like an eagle to ensure that the core objectives of the tariff and tax rebate policy are not undermined and prevent it from eventually turning into a disguised subsidy for TSMC."

TSMC’s investment scale decision exemption

The size of the proposed tax rebate program will be linked to the recently concluded U.S.-Taiwan trade agreement. The White House has agreed to cut tariffs on Taiwan's imported goods to 15% in exchange for Taiwan's investment commitment of US$250 billion in the US chip industry. According to the agreement,Taiwanese companies investing in the United States, including TSMC, will receive exemptions from the upcoming tariffs in proportion to their planned production capacity in the United States.

According to the outline of the trade agreement announced by the U.S. Department of Commerce, the White House will allow Taiwanese companies building semiconductor factories in the United States to import duty-free chips equal to 2.5 times the planned production capacity of the new factory during the construction period. For Taiwanese companies that have built factories in the United States, they are allowed to import chips equivalent to 1.5 times their production capacity duty-free.

TSMC can allocate exemptions under the trade deal to its U.S. tech giant customers, allowing the companies to import chips from TSMC duty-free.The scale and scope of tax rebates available to U.S. hyperscale cloud service providers will depend on TSMC’s estimates of its U.S. production capacity in the next few years. A person familiar with the matter revealed that there are still many unknowns about the specific implementation details.

As of press time, the U.S. Department of Commerce and the White House had not responded to requests for comment. TSMC declined to comment.