- Trump’s sweeping tariffs have sent tech stocks tumbling. On Wednesday, the U.S. president announced blanket 10% tariffs on all countries, sparking fears of supply chain chaos and concerns about the U.S.’s AI sector.
Tech stocks took a beating after President Trump announced sweeping global tariffs ranging from 10% to 49% on both “friend and foe.”
The wave of tariffs sent global markets plunging, with U.S. companies reliant on Asian supply chains hit particularly hard. The tariffs include a 10% blanket rate on all imports, with higher duties for China (34%), Europe (20%), and Japan (24%). Trump has framed the move as an effort to boost U.S. industry and bring manufacturing jobs back home.
Apple shares, which are heavily exposed to additional tariffs on China, fell 5.7% in aftermarket in response to the news. Fellow tech giants Alphabet, Amazon, and Meta all dropped between 2.5% and 5%. Microsoft was down by almost 2% while Nvidia sunk by around 5.2%.
Wedbush’s Dan Ives called Trump’s tariffs “illogical and absurd” and a “white knuckle moment” for the tech industry.
“Tech stocks will clearly be under major pressure on this announcement as the worries about demand destruction, supply chains, and especially the China/Taiwan piece of the tariffs,” he said, citing Apple and Nvidia as particularly exposed.
He also warned that retaliatory tariffs could disrupt the AI supply chain.
“The broader worry is that China aggressively goes down the retaliatory path…constrict the supply chain for next-generation Nvidia chips/hardware along with driving more Chinese consumers to buy China goods (e.g Huawei over Apple, BYD over Tesla),” he said in a note.
Tariffs squeeze Apple’s supply chain
Despite Apple’s years-long effort to shift production out of China, the company was hit hard by the tariff announcement.
On Wednesday, Trump imposed steep tariffs on Vietnam (46%) and India (26%)—two key manufacturing hubs for the tech giant. The new 34% levies on Chinese imports add to existing 20% tariffs.
Apple is particularly vulnerable to Trump’s global tariffs, as much of its supply chain for iPhones, Apple Watches, and iPads operates outside the U.S. Morgan Stanley analysts estimate the tariffs could slash the company’s profits by 7% next year, cutting $8.5 billion from its bottom line.
“Apple produces basically all their iPhones in China and the question will be around exceptions/exemptions on this tariff policy if those companies are building more operations/factories/plants in the US like Apple announced in February,” Ives said in a note.
CEO Tim Cook has successfully secured tariff exemptions in the past, but the administration appears unwilling to grant them this time. Trump has previously stated he won’t allow exemptions for individual products.
Cook has worked to maintain close ties with the president. After Trump took office, the Apple CEO met with him at the White House and pledged to invest hundreds of billions in the U.S. In February, Apple reaffirmed that commitment by announcing a $500 billion investment.
AI innovation could also take a hit
The AI sector may also suffer from the newly announced blanket 10% tariffs.
In a Thursday note, Wedbush analysts warned that the new U.S. trade policy puts “American leadership and exceptionalism in its most important industry at risk.”
The tariffs could significantly increase the cost of data center infrastructure. Retaliatory tariffs—particularly on electricity—could also make it more profitable to build data centers abroad rather than in the U.S.
“If eventually this effective tax or a more antagonistic relationship with the rest of the world leads to the US falling behind in technology innovation, in our view it will necessarily have meaningful negative implications for the future trajectory of America,” they said.
Despite these risks, U.S. tech leaders are expected to continue heavy investment in AI infrastructure to maintain their competitive edge. However, the tariffs are effectively imposing a tax on domestic innovation, making it more costly for American companies to lead in the next wave of technological advancements, they said.
