Why The AI Industry Is Largely Unmoved By Trump's Tariff Threats

As President Trump has announced varying tariffs over the last month, tech stock prices have dipped, with investors fearing broad impacts on different parts of the tech sector. Shares of NVIDIA, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) and AMD have all wobbled, responding in part to news that Trump might implement a 25% tariff on semiconductors shipped to the U.S. The possible tariffs are said to be part of Trump's plan to try to get more semiconductor and AI-related manufacturing in the U.S. But industry insiders say that they're not yet changing any of their longterm approaches --and are mostly viewing the tariff threats as simply another input factor in a volatile industry whose prices are constantly shifting. "Tariffs are more of a blip as opposed to a strong headwind," says Scott Almassy, semiconductor lead at PwC. Nazar Khan, the COO and CTO of the data center company Terawulf, adds: "No one's really changing what they're doing because it's just too much guesswork." Trump's semiconductor tariffs could go into effect as early as April 2, he said.