- The Trump administration announced numerous exemptions late Friday night to his “reciprocal tariffs,” including popular consumer electronics and critical tech components. That offers a huge reprieve for US technology leaders like Apple and Nvidia, prompting Wedbush analyst Dan Ives to declare it the “best possible news for tech investors.”
President Donald Trump pulled the US tech sector back from the edge of catastrophe after his administration exempted popular consumer electronics and critical inputs from his “reciprocal tariffs,” according to Wedbush analyst Dan Ives.
US Customs and Border Protection issued new guidance late Friday night on Trump’s tariffs, exempting a range of imports like smartphones, computers, semiconductors, chip-making equipment, solar cells, flat panel TV displays, flash drives, memory cards and solid-state drives for data storage.
While some products could eventually be hit with future tariffs, they likely would be lower than what Trump previously unveiled. In particular, it offers a huge break for companies reliant on factories in China, which faces a 125% reciprocal tariff on top of a 20% duty. That triggered a 125% retaliatory levy from China, meaning both sides were poised to effectively cut off trade from each other.
In a post on X Saturday morning, Ives called Trump’s exemptions the “best possible news for tech investors” that lifts a huge cloud over the sector, as US tech giants had virtually no alternatives outside of their Asia-based supply chains.
“Without these exemptions the US Tech industry would be taken back a decade and the Al Revolution thesis would have been slowed significantly,” he added. “Instead we believe the White House got enough overwhelming feedback from tech and business leaders from Silicon Valley throughout the week that tariffs especially those in China would structurally change the business models while this tariff war and China negotiations play out.”
The exemptions mark the latest twist in Trump’s on-again, off-again rollout of his tariffs. On Wednesday, he announced a 90-day pause on elevated rates above the baseline but hiked rates for China. It also comes after he and his staff vowed not to back down, then signaled they were open to negotiations.
For Ives, the new carveouts demonstrate that the US tech industry has a “loud voice” and that despite strong earlier resistance from the White House on exemptions “the reality of the situation was finally recognized in the Beltway.”
To be sure, there is still much uncertainty and volatility ahead, as any talks with China will likely take a number of months, at least, he acknowledged. But for now, the likes of Apple, Nvidia, Microsoft and others can breathe a huge sigh of relief this weekend.
“Big Tech is back off the cliff with these exemptions and this changes the entire situation for tech stocks with this black swan event for the industry removed,” Ives wrote. “US Big Tech is in a massively strong position on the Al Revolution…. and with these exemptions that statement remains unchanged and will make some happy tech bulls (including ourselves) this weekend after a dark 10 days of fear and questions.”
In a follow-up post, he added that “there will still be some moving goal posts” amid negotiations, “but doomsday scenario is now off the table in our view.”
The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on why the administration exempted the tech imports from its tariffs.
Last weekend, after markets suffered a brutal $5 trillion selloff in the wake of Trump’s “Liberation Day” announcement of his 10% baseline tariffs and even higher duties on dozens of other countries, signs emerged of pushback from Corporate America.
Trump adviser Elon Musk appeared to break with the White House’s trade war last Saturday, when the Tesla CEO expressed hope for a “zero-tariff” system between the US and Europe that would create “a free-trade zone.”
And earlier in the day, Musk belittled White House official Peter Navarro, who was reportedly a key figure on the tariff policy, suggesting on X that his Harvard degree is “a bad thing” and that he has never built anything.
Meanwhile, tech journalist Kara Swisher posted on Threads last Friday that “a passel of high profile tech and also finance leaders is making a trip to Mar-a-Lago to read Trump the riot act — um talk common sense — to him on the tariffs.”
