[News] US Reportedly Mulls Tariff Exemptions for Amazon, Google, Microsoft on TSMC-Made Chips

The Trump administration is considering tariff exemptions for Amazon, Google, and Microsoft on chips made by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the Financial Times reports. The exemptions would apply to the companies as they expand data centers. In January the administration imposed a 25 percent tariff on certain AI chips from Advanced Micro Devices and Nvidia. The Financial Times, citing sources familiar with the matter, says the Commerce Department is preparing carve-outs for major US technology companies. Any exemptions would be contingent on investment commitments from TSMC. Under the reported plan, TSMC would be able to grant exemptions for its US clients from upcoming duties. The scale of the potential rebates would be tied to a US-Taiwan trade deal. In exchange for a 250 billion dollar investment in the US chip sector, the White House has agreed to cut tariffs on imports from Taiwan to 15 percent. Microsoft's Maia 200 is built on TSMC's 3nm process, while Google's TPU v7e and v8p, Amazon's Trainium 3, and Meta's MTIA v3 are all produced on the same node, the report states. The plan aims to push TSMC to increase production in the United States. The company has committed 165 billion dollars to expand capacity on American soil, though most of its manufacturing remains in Taiwan. Taiwanese firms constructing semiconductor plants in the US would be allowed to import up to 2.5 times the planned capacity of the new facilities tariff-free during the build-out, according to a Commerce Department outline of the trade deal. For companies with existing US plants, the limit would be 1.5 times their current capacity.