Mark Zuckerberg, chief govt officer of Meta Platforms Inc., and U.S. President Donald Trump throughout a dinner with tech leaders within the State Eating Room of the White Home in Washington, DC, U.S., on Sept. 4, 2025.
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President Donald Trump has reiterated a warning that he’ll quickly impose “pretty substantial” tariffs on semiconductor imports from corporations that don’t shift manufacturing to the U.S., however will spare companies like Apple that broaden investments domestically.
Trump made the feedback Thursday evening throughout a dinner on the White Home with greater than two dozen main tech leaders, together with Apple CEO Tim Prepare dinner, Meta‘s Mark Zuckerberg and Oracle CEO Safra Catz.
“I’ve mentioned it with the individuals right here, chips and semiconductors, and we’ll be placing tariffs on corporations that are not coming in,” the President stated.
“We’ll be placing a tariff very shortly. You in all probability are listening to we’ll be placing a reasonably substantial tariff, or not that top, however a reasonably substantial tariff.”
Trump had stated final month throughout an occasion with Prepare dinner that he would impose a 100% tariff on semiconductor imports, whereas exempting merchandise from corporations that transfer their manufacturing to the U.S. On the time, Apple pledged to spend an extra $100 billion on a home manufacturing initiative, including on a $500 billion announcement that Apple made in February.
Throughout Thursday’s occasion, Trump famous that “Tim Prepare dinner could be in fairly good condition,” relating to the potential import levies.
The U.S. has been working to onshore its semiconductor provide chain for a few years now. Since 2020, the world’s largest semiconductor corporations, resembling TSMC and Samsung Electronics, have dedicated tons of of billions of {dollars} to constructing crops within the U.S.
Thus, these main semiconductor corporations are anticipated to obtain exemptions beneath Trump’s potential tariffs. Nonetheless, many elements of the tariffs and exceptions for corporations investing within the U.S. stay unclear.
Trump supplied few particulars on Thursday, saying merely that “in the event that they’re coming in, constructing, planning to come back in, there won’t be a tariff.”
The remainder of the dinner noticed tech leaders from OpenAI’s Sam Altman to Google co-founder Sergey Brin bathe reward on the President for his pro-business and AI stances.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who had a public spat with Trump in June this yr, was not current on the dinner. Nonetheless, he stated on his social media platform X that he was invited, however couldn’t attend, and that he would ship a consultant.
Earlier than the dinner, first girl Melania Trump made a speech alongside senior Trump administration officers and tech CEOs for the second assembly of the White Home Activity Pressure on Synthetic Intelligence Training.
The primary girl highlighted the significance of AI in schooling and American progress, however that “we should handle AI’s progress responsibly.”
