The Trump administration signed a Presidential Proclamation on January 14, 2026, slapping a 25% tariff on a curated list of advanced computing chips and their derivative products. The tariffs took effect the very next day, targeting imports that don’t contribute to building out the domestic technology supply chain.
Among the products caught in the crosshairs: Nvidia’s H200 and AMD’s MI325X processors. These are the kinds of chips powering the AI infrastructure boom, and making them more expensive to import is the administration’s way of saying “build it here or pay up.”
How we got here
The US Commerce Department launched a national security investigation on April 1, 2025, under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act, the same legal authority used to justify steel and aluminum tariffs in previous years. That investigation examined vulnerabilities in the nation’s semiconductor supply chain, with findings delivered on December 22, 2025.
Back in August 2025, Trump threatened tariffs exceeding 100% on foreign chips unless manufacturers committed to building facilities on US soil. The 25% rate that actually materialized is notably lower than that threat, but the administration has left the door wide open for escalation.
