US to Impose 25% Tariff on Certain Imported Advanced Chips That Are Then Exported
The U.S. is planning to impose a 25% tariff on imports of certain advanced chips that are then exported elsewhere, the White House said Jan. 14.
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Those chips, including the Nvidia H200 and AMD MI325X, will be subject to a 25% Section 232 tariff starting Jan. 15 unless they're being imported for a range of domestic purposes, according to an executive order signed by President Donald Trump. Those purposes include for use "in United States data centers, for repairs or replacements performed in the United States, for research and development in the United States involving these chips, for startups in the United States, for non-data center consumer applications in the United States, for use in non-data center civil industrial applications in the United States, for use in United States public sector applications, or for other uses that the Secretary determines contribute to the strengthening of the United States technology supply chain or domestic manufacturing capacity for derivatives of semiconductors."
The order includes an annex outlining the technical and performance parameters of the imported chips that will be covered by the tariff.
At a signing ceremony at the White House, the administration characterized the tariff as only applying to chips destined for customers outside the U.S. "For example, semiconductors that were transshipped through the United States to other foreign countries would be subject to that 25% tariff," an aide said at the ceremony.
Nvidia's H200 chips are manufactured by TSMC in Taiwan, and Nvidia has successfully lobbied the Trump administration in recent weeks to permit exports of H200 chips to China. The executive order doesn't specifically mention Taiwan or China.
Trump, speaking at the White House, said the order is targeting "not the highest level" of chips, "but it's a very good level. And China wants them, and other people want them, and we're going to be making 25% on the sale of those chips, basically." He added that he thinks it's "a very good deal, a great deal. We're taking billions of dollars."
Trump early last year announced plans to allow Nvidia to sell its previously restricted H20 chips to China -- which are less advanced than the H200 -- in exchange for the company giving the government a 15% cut of its sales revenue from those exported chips (see 2508220003). U.S. officials have scrambled to figure out how to implement the supposed revenue-sharing deal, with some analysts and lawmakers noting that the Export Control Reform Act bars charging fees for export licenses (see 2508220003 and 2508150034).
The Bureau of Industry and Security earlier this week unveiled a rule that eased the export license review policy for shipments of H200 exports to China. To benefit from the new policy, exporters of those H200 chips and their equivalents must certify that there is sufficient supply in the U.S., that the production of the chip won’t “divert global foundry capacity for similar or more advanced products for end users in the United States”; that the chip will undergo third-party testing; and more (see 2601130073).