Trump’s Tariffs Could Cost U.S. AI Leadership, Chip Revival

Donald Trump’s tariff policy threatens his plans to boost domestic chip manufacturing and also hinders the US’s aim to dominate the AI ​​market, as it could increase the cost of building semiconductor factories and AI data centres in the US, the Financial Times reports, citing IT industry officials.

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«”The economic uncertainty caused by Trump’s tariffs could be the biggest obstacle to American AI dominance,” said Sravan Kundojjala of consultancy SemiAnalysis.

In 2025 alone, major tech companies including Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and Meta✴ plan to invest $300 billion in the computing infrastructure that powers AI. They will be supported by overseas companies like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, which has pledged $100 billion to boost chip-making capacity in the U.S. But the moves face uncertainty and disruption as rising tariffs affect the complex global supply chains that support major AI projects.

Analysts said that while the tariff exemption on semiconductors and related chipmaking equipment, materials and components appeared to be temporary, the ongoing tariff regime, including 145 percent duties on goods from China, would still increase the cost of building and financing manufacturing facilities and AI data centers in the U.S.

Altana estimates that Chinese tariffs alone will increase annual spending by more than $11 billion for U.S. data center developers.

A U.S. investigation into chip import chains under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, which is expected to take up to 270 days, could lead to even more onerous requirements for the industry.

Analysts say imposing new tariffs on semiconductor imports will be challenging because most chips enter the U.S. as components in devices such as smartphones, laptops or graphics processors used in AI data centers.

GPUs contain chips that are primarily made in Taiwan or South Korea, but are often shipped to Southeast Asian countries like Malaysia and the Philippines for packaging and testing. These chips are then shipped back to Taiwan or Mexico to be assembled into circuit boards, onto which new components are added before being installed in servers exported to the United States for use in AI data centers.

«Even if the GPU itself is exempt from tariffs, you’re still going to be facing huge costs in the U.S. if tariffs are still applied to components,” says Mohammad Ahmad, CEO of supply chain analytics platform Z2Data. “The number of product categories is so large that even the smallest component can cause a disruption to your supply chain.”

SemiAnalysis’ Kundojala said that even with a 32 percent tariff on chips from Taiwan, U.S. semiconductor manufacturing would still become more expensive because the cost of key tools and materials would rise. “The threat of the U.S. itself compromising its ability to restore domestic manufacturing is real,” he said. “It will be cheaper to build manufacturing capacity outside the U.S., while companies with the highest share of U.S. manufacturing could suffer the most,” the analyst added.