Trump says hell put tariffs on imported chips in the near futureTrump says hell put tariffs on imported chips in the near future / Calling Bidens CHIPS Act incentives ridiculous, he claimed companies will build new plants in the US to avoid higher taxes and called DeepSeeks AI a positive.By Richard Lawler, a senior editor following news across tech, culture, policy, and entertainment. He joined The Verge in 2021 after several years covering news at Engadget. Jan 28, 2025, 1:38 AM UTCShare this story Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty ImagesWithout going into detail about what might happen to the $52 billion in subsidies from the CHIPS Act under his administration, Donald Trump said tariffs on foreign computer chips, semiconductors, and pharmaceuticals are coming in the near future. He also namechecked DeepSeeks AI releases, saying, ...coming up with a faster method of AI and less expensive, thats good. I view that as a positive if it is fact and it is true, and nobody knows, but I view that as a positive.In the speech at the House GOP Issues Conference held at the Trump National Doral Resort in Miami Monday afternoon, he said that to return the production of these goods to the US, we dont want to give them billions of dollars like this ridiculous program Biden has. Instead the incentive for manufacturers will be they will not want to pay a tax.This is despite the outcome of the trade war with China during his first administration that expanded Chinas trade surplus with the US between 2018, when the tariffs began, and 2021. A CTA report from last year cited by TechCrunchHe also said that we will have more plants built in the next short period of time than ever before because the incentive will be there, however its unclear how many of those will be like The Stargate Projects first datacenter in Texas, which was in the works well before the start of his administration. Last fall, the Commerce Department said that by then, it had announced over $30 billion in proposed CHIPS private sector investments spanning 23 projects in 15 states with 16 new manufacturing facilities in the works.He also said of DeepSeek that instead of spending billions you will spend less and hopefully come up with the same solution, even as OpenAI, Softbank & co. say theyre preparing to spend $500 billion on AI datacenters.Most PopularMost Popular