Trump To Impose 100% Chip Tariffs, But Will Exempt US Investors Like Apple

With CEO Tim Cook standing next to him in the Oval Office as the president announced a fresh (and very laughable) $100 billion investment plan by Apple which it would then add to the $500 billion already pledged over the next 4 years (which is ridiculous since Apple spent $43 billion in capex in the past 4 years and generated less than $100 billion in net income in its best year), Trump announced he would impose a 100% tariff on chip and semiconductor imports, but would exempt companies moving production back to the United States.

Apple had previously pledged to spend $500 billion in the US over the next four years, an acceleration over its prior investments and previously announced plans, adding about $39 billion in spending and an additional 1,000 jobs annually. The announcement will bring Apple’s cumulative commitment to $600 billion, and appears to be an ad hoc bundling of pretty much everything on the income and cash flow statements, including CoGS, SG&A, CapEx, buybacks and so on. The previously-planned $500 billion was said to include work on a new server manufacturing facility in Houston, a supplier academy in Michigan and additional spending with its existing suppliers in the country.

“We’re going to be putting a very large tariff on chips and semiconductors, but the good news for companies like Apple is, if you’re building in the United States, or have committed to build, without question, committed to build in the United States, there will be no charge,” Trump told reporters.

“So in other words, we’ll be putting a tariff of approximately 100% on chips and semiconductors. But if you’re building in the United States of America, there’s no charge,” Trump said. “Even though you’re building and you’re not producing yet, in terms of the big numbers of jobs and all of things building, if you’re building, there will be no charge.”

BREAKING: President Trump just announced a 100% tariff on chips and semiconductors. Companies that are in the process of moving manufacturing into the United States won’t be charged.

“If for some reason you say you’re building and you don’t build, then we go back, and we add it… pic.twitter.com/LWoXQuQX8D

— George (@BehizyTweets) August 6, 2025

The hollow announcement which is largely unenforceable and amounts to nothing more than a promise by Apple, represents a major victory for Apple and Cook, who have faced escalating threats from Trump’s tariffs that threatened to ratchet up the cost of producing their signature phones and computers. And while AAPL will spend precisely zero dollars, it already got the benefit of the market which sent its stock price billions of dollars higher on absolutely nothing.

In theory, Apple’s $100 billion US investment will include a new manufacturing program designed to bring more of Apple’s production to the US. The company’s American Manufacturing Program partners include glassmaker Corning, Applied Materials, Texas Instruments and others, the company said. 

Corning will dedicate an entire factory in Kentucky to Apple glass production, increasing that company’s workforce in the state by 50%. Corning was already a supplier to Apple, making glass for the very first iPhone at the same factory.

The increased pledge comes as Trump escalates a tariff push that’s set to raise costs for Apple throughout its international supply chains. 

Meanwhile, Trump followed through with his plans to hit India – a key production market for Apple – with 50% tariffs, the first half of which takes effect just after midnight alongside a raft of other country-specific levies designed to reduce trade imbalances. The other half, to penalize India for buying Russian energy, will take effect later this month. 

The president has said he could unveil separate levies on all products containing semiconductor chips as soon as next week.

Cook, who attended the president’s inauguration and donated to his inaugural committee, has pushed for tariff exemptions for his company’s iPhones. Most iPhones sold in the US come from India, while the bulk of other products, including Apple Watches, iPads and MacBooks, are manufactured in Vietnam, which was hit with a 20% tariff. While details of those tariffs, and how firms would qualify for exemptions, have yet to be released, Trump singled out Cook’s Apple as an example of how to avoid the increased levies. Namely, make bombastic promises that make for glitzy headlines.

Cook’s investment echoes dozens of pledges from companies since Trump won the 2024 presidential election, with CEOs flying to his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, and then to the White House once he was sworn in, to court the new administration and announce hundreds of billions of dollars worth of new deals.

Most if not all of these investments were already in the works prior to the November election, or were on par with previous investment trends, Bloomberg previously reported. Economists have also questioned whether all of the pledged spending, and associated job opportunities, will come to fruition.

Meanwhile, Apple’s promised investments, while substantial, fall short of the full shift to US-based production that Trump and top White House officials have envisioned and encouraged. Earlier this year, the president threatened to impose a tariff of at least 25% on Apple if it didn’t move manufacturing of the iPhone to the US, a day after he met with Cook at the White House. 

Cook told the president that final iPhone assembly “will be elsewhere for a while,” though highlighted that several components are being made in the US. Trump, seemingly satisfied, praised the Apple leader’s plans.

“Look, he’s not making this kind of an investment anywhere in the world, not even close,” Trump said of Cook. “He’s coming back. I mean, Apple’s coming back to America.”

Actually, no he isn’t.