President Donald Trump’s new tariffs include limited exemptions for semiconductors, raising concerns in the US technology sector.

The exemptions apply to a narrow range of goods under the Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS), but many key items like GPUs and servers for training AI models are still subject to tariffs.

Manufacturing equipment, including advanced lithography machines crucial for chip production, is also not exempted.

Experts warn these tariffs could raise costs for AI hardware and stall infrastructure development.

Nancy Wei from Eurasia Group said high-end GPUs will become more expensive, impacting cloud computing and military-grade semiconductor use.

Analysts also fear retaliatory tariffs from other countries, complicating global trade.

Despite the Chips Act’s US$52 billion investment, rising import costs could hinder domestic chip production efforts. The US currently makes only 12% of the world’s chips, down from 37% in 1990.