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Short answer: President Donald Trump’s April 8, 2025 statement about a possible 100% tax on TSMC’s chips was a threat, not proof that a 100% tariff had already been imposed. TSMC did not cancel its Arizona expansion. In a May 5 filing, its Arizona subsidiary warned that broad import restrictions could jeopardize committed U.S. projects by raising costs and creating uncertainty. The company’s announced U.S. investment later expanded again, so the headline should be read as a dispute over policy design and project economics—not as a cancellation notice.
What Trump actually proposed
On April 8, 2025, Trump said TSMC could face a tax of up to 100% if it did not build plants in the United States. Reuters reported the comment the following day, including Trump’s criticism of the Biden administration’s $6.6 billion CHIPS funding commitment for TSMC’s Arizona unit: Reuters’ account of the April 2025 statement.
That was a political warning about a possible future tariff. It was not, by itself, a tariff proclamation, customs rule, or evidence that importers were already paying a 100% duty on TSMC chips made in Taiwan. The statement also did not establish whether a future measure would cover bare wafers, packaged chips, semiconductor equipment, factory inputs, or finished products containing chips.
A later tariff would require an operative legal instrument specifying products, rates, effective dates, country-of-origin rules and exemptions. Those details determine who pays and which shipments are affected.
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How the Arizona investment reached $165 billion
The $165 billion figure is an announced U.S. investment total centered on Arizona, not $165 billion already spent or a single completed construction project.
| Date | Development |
|---|---|
| 2020 | TSMC selected Phoenix for its first advanced U.S. semiconductor manufacturing site. |
| Initial plan | The original Arizona commitment was approximately $12 billion. |
| By 2024 | The earlier Arizona plan had grown to approximately $65 billion. |
| Fourth quarter 2024 | TSMC says its first Arizona fab entered high-volume production using N4 technology. |
| November 2024 | The Commerce Department announced up to $6.6 billion in direct CHIPS Program funding for TSMC Arizona: Commerce announcement. |
| March 2025 | TSMC announced another $100 billion of U.S. investment, taking its stated total to about $165 billion. The company described three additional fabs, two advanced-packaging facilities and an R&D center: TSMC announcement and TSMC March 2025 overview. |
TSMC’s own project page continues to describe the Arizona program and its history at TSMC Arizona. “Three additional fabs” refers to the March expansion on top of the earlier plan; public summaries can therefore use different counts depending on whether they mean new or total planned fabs.
What TSMC said was at risk
On May 5, 2025, TSMC Arizona submitted a response to the Commerce Department’s Section 232 inquiry into semiconductor imports. The filing said broad import restrictions could harm U.S. technology leadership and create uncertainty for committed capital projects, explicitly identifying the company’s Phoenix investment plan. The filing is available at the Commerce Department regulatory docket.
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TSMC’s concern was not that any tariff automatically cancels a fab. It was that the scope, duration and exemptions of restrictions could alter the economics of building and operating in the United States. The company sought continued tariff-free access to inputs that could not reasonably be sourced domestically and emphasized that advanced-chip manufacturing depends on a global supplier network.
- Finished or partially finished chips: A duty on Taiwan-made chips could make imported supply more expensive in the U.S. market.
- Manufacturing equipment: Duties on lithography, inspection, fabrication and other equipment could increase the cost of constructing a U.S. fab.
- Materials and components: High-purity chemicals, specialty gases, silicon wafers, replacement parts and packaging inputs may still be imported by a U.S.-based plant.
- Downstream products: Tariffs on servers, phones, cars or other products containing chips could reduce customer demand.
The letter raised planning and commercial risks; it did not announce withdrawal of the Arizona project.
Why tariffs can undermine the factories they are meant to attract
The policy argument is straightforward: make imported chips more expensive, and companies have a stronger reason to manufacture in America. The counterargument is that a U.S. fab is itself part of an international supply chain.
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- Imported equipment and materials enter a U.S. factory.
- Those costs affect the fab’s capital budget, operating expense and wafer prices.
- Higher wafer prices affect customers such as chip designers and device manufacturers.
- Those customers may absorb the increase, renegotiate contracts, redesign products, delay deployments or pass costs to buyers.
A tariff on Taiwan-made chips creates a different chain: it raises the cost of overseas supply and may improve the relative case for Arizona capacity, but domestic production may still have higher costs and cannot instantly replace every Taiwan process node, packaging service or qualified supply source.
The eventual result depends on the tariff base, exemptions, origin rules, implementation date, customer contracts, manufacturing yields and available Arizona capacity. A company “building in America” is not automatically protected unless an enacted rule defines that protection, and an exemption for finished chips may not cover imported fab inputs.
Reward or punishment?
The dispute reflects a tension in U.S. industrial policy. The Trump administration presented tariffs as leverage to move advanced chip production onto U.S. soil. TSMC’s filing argued that indiscriminate restrictions could make U.S. production more expensive and less predictable.
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The Arizona project also predates the 2025 threat. TSMC’s decisions have been associated with customer demand, supply-chain resilience, access to the U.S. market and public support across administrations. The Biden administration’s CHIPS award supplied up to $6.6 billion in direct funding, while Trump criticized that subsidy and claimed the larger investment as evidence that his approach was working. The March 2025 White House framing is at the White House release.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.The formal tariff process is separate from the April threat
Semiconductor trade restrictions were also pursued through a formal Section 232 national-security investigation under the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. Commerce solicited comments on semiconductors, semiconductor-manufacturing equipment and derivative products; TSMC Arizona’s May letter was part of that process.
In January 2026, the White House issued a later semiconductor-trade action at this presidential-action page. That later measure should not be treated as identical to Trump’s April 2025 remark. Its actual rates, classifications, exemptions and effective dates must be read from the operative proclamation and implementing customs guidance.
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Where the investment stood by 2026
The public record does not support “TSMC cancels its $165 billion plan.” TSMC’s Arizona page still presents the major $165 billion program, while a July 2026 government release described an additional $100 billion TSMC commitment for advanced semiconductor manufacturing and packaging in Arizona: NIST-hosted release.
The later announcement points to continued expansion rather than straightforward abandonment. It appears to be additional to the earlier $165 billion headline, bringing the stated U.S. commitment to roughly $265 billion, but announced investment is not the same as completed spending. Public releases also do not establish that every facility is operating, fully funded or on a fixed completion schedule.
Who could ultimately pay?
- TSMC: It could absorb some duty through lower margins or seek price adjustments.
- Chip customers: Nvidia, Apple, AMD, Broadcom and other customers could face higher component costs depending on sourcing and contracts.
- Cloud and AI infrastructure: Higher prices for advanced processors and packaging could affect data-center expansion budgets.
- Consumer and industrial buyers: Phones, computers, vehicles and equipment may become more expensive if costs move downstream.
- Taxpayers: Public incentives attract private capital but also create questions about conditions, economic returns and enforcement.
Arizona capacity will represent only part of TSMC’s global output. Whether it can replace Taiwan production depends on process technology, packaging, yields, customer qualification, ramp speed and the supporting supplier ecosystem.
What to watch next
- The exact legal definition of any semiconductor tariff and its product coverage.
- Whether exemptions include equipment, chemicals, wafers, packaging materials and replacement parts.
- Country-of-origin treatment for chips fabricated, packaged and incorporated in different countries.
- Construction, equipment installation, qualification and production milestones rather than headline investment totals.
- How customers divide sourcing between Arizona and Taiwan and whether contracts pass through tariff costs.
The Bottom Line
Trump’s 100% figure was a proposed tariff threat, not an established 100% duty on TSMC chips. TSMC’s May 2025 filing warned that broad, uncertain restrictions could raise the cost of its U.S. projects, but it did not cancel the Arizona plan. Continued announcements—including a further $100 billion described in July 2026—show expansion, while the final economic effect still depends on the tariff’s legal scope, exemptions and treatment of the global inputs that U.S. fabs require.
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