- President Trump said during an event Tuesday that chipmaker TSMC had pledged an additional $100 billion to build semiconductors in the U.S. after he threatened the company with tariffs of up to 100%. The company had already pledged $65 billion to make chips in the U.S. and received a $6.6 billion subsidy under the Biden administration that Trump has criticized.
Chipmaker TSMC promised to make more semiconductors in the U.S. thanks in part to Biden-era incentives, but Trump says the company doubled down after he threatened it with 100% tariffs.
President Trump, during a National Republican Congressional Committee event Tuesday, criticized former President Biden’s decision to award TSMC $6.6 billion in grants as part of the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act to support semiconductor factories in Phoenix. The move was finalized just before Biden’s term ended, and TSMC pledged $65 billion in funding.
In March, TSMC, in conjunction with Trump, announced an additional $100 billion investment to make chips in the U.S., and the president emphasized that the deal was closed without offering stimulus.
“All I did is say, ‘If you don’t build your plant here, you are going to pay a big tax—25, maybe 50, maybe 75, maybe 100%,’” Trump said during the event.
TSMC declined to comment to Fortune.
Trump has previously criticized giving government subsidies to businesses even though he sought to bring TSMC to the country during his first administration. Since returning to the White House, the president has tried to scrap the $52.7 billion CHIPS Act, to the protest of some Republican senators whose states have benefited from the funding.
“These chip companies are loaded. They give these companies billions of dollars to build a plant in the United States. They don’t build them in the U.S.,” Trump said Tuesday.
On Wednesday, Trump announced a 90-day pause on the steep “Liberation Day” tariffs he instituted last week, replacing them with a 10% base tariff on all countries except for China.
Although there was an exemption for semiconductors, the now-paused tariffs put a 32% tax on Taiwan, where most of the world’s semiconductors are produced. And manufactured chips that are installed in electronics abroad are still subject to the tariffs that apply to the country from which they are exported.
Trump has previously threatened other companies, including manufacturer John Deere. On the campaign trail Trump said he would hit the manufacturer with 200% tariffs unless it stopped plans to move some of its production from the Midwest to Mexico. During his first administration, Trump went after General Motors, threatening to cut its federal subsidies after the company said it would close some of its U.S. plants.
