The Trump administration is weighing a tariff offset plan that could spare Taiwan’s chipmaking crown jewel, provided it keeps shovelling money into US capacity.
The Financial Times reports that Taiwanese companies building plants in the US, including TSMC, would be exempt from forthcoming chip tariffs in proportion to their planned US capacity.
The FT suggests beneficiaries could import up to 2.5 times the planned capacity of new facilities tariff-free during the buildout, which is what Washington is screaming for faster expansion.
Trump’s tariff hits on leading-edge chips that would have landed straight on hyperscalers and fabless customers, then rippled through the AI supply chain.
The clever bit is that the exemptions are linked to capacity, which prevents this from becoming a pure VIP list where only the loudest customers are saved.
It lands as Taiwan pushes back hard on the idea of shifting 40 per cent of its semiconductor output to the US, calling that target impossible.
TSMC has continued to expand its US presence, spanning Arizona fabs, advanced packaging, and a new R&D centre.
The White House has signalled the shape of the policy, floating significant tariffs alongside a tariff offset programme meant to incentivise domestic semiconductor manufacturing.
Details remain hazy, including whether caps will apply to tariff-free volume and how exemptions will be validated once plans are put into practice.
There is the awkward bit that Washington is trying to squeeze China-facing flows while keeping US AI buildouts from failing.
