25% Tariffs Apply to Some Advanced Chips Beginning Jan. 15
Certain advanced chips -- including the NVIDIA H200 and AMD MI325X, a White House fact sheet said -- will be subject to 25% Section 232 tariffs starting Jan. 15, but a broad array of domestic uses of those chips are carved out from the action.
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The tariffs will cover advanced microchips with specific parameters that are described in the annex to a presidential proclamation, but only when they are not going to be used "in United States data centers, for repairs or replacements performed in the United States, for research and development in the United States involving these chips, for startups in the United States, for non-data center consumer applications in the United States, for use in non-data center civil industrial applications in the United States, for use in United States public sector applications, or for other uses that the Secretary determines contribute to the strengthening of the United States technology supply chain or domestic manufacturing capacity for derivatives of semiconductors."
At a signing ceremony at the White House, the administration characterized the tariff as only applying to chips destined for customers outside the U.S.
However, the 232 investigation could result in tariffs on other products months from now. The proclamation says that the Commerce Secretary and U.S. Trade Representative will also undertake negotiations with countries that produce chips and chipmaking equipment, and if the administration is not satisfied that agreements with those countries will increase U.S. manufacturing in these sectors, "the [Commerce] Secretary recommended broader tariffs on semiconductors, at a rate of duty that is significant. The Secretary also recommended that this broader tariff be accompanied by a tariff offset program to enable companies investing in United States semiconductor production and certain parts of the United States semiconductor supply chain to obtain preferential tariff treatment."
Those agreements must be concluded within 180 days, the proclamation says.