Donald Trump hasn’t moved into the White House for his second term just yet, but his tariff proposals are already prompting action within American industry.
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The president-elect has made clear that he is sharply focused on implementing tariffs against multiple U.S. trade partners, including China, Canada and Mexico.
During his first presidency, Trump opted for tariffs against all three nations, thrusting the U.S. economy into a trade war.
Trump won’t be sworn in until Jan. 20, and he has only broadly discussed how big the tariffs might be and on which products they’d be imposed.
But some companies are already taking major steps to avoid becoming casualties if another trade war breaks out. In particular, companies that depend on business relationships with Chinese firms are taking no chances.
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Among them, two leading chipmakers have announced a key operational change that might be a bellwether.
Since the artificial-intelligence system ChatGPT launched in November 2022, semiconductors have emerged as one of the hottest areas of technology.
Most people outside the tech field probably don’t think about them too much, but these small devices are a key component of the AI boom, which is transforming entire industries.
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And this area of the tech industry may be facing complications if Trump moves forward with his tariffs against China.
According to reports, both Nvidia (NVDA) and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) , two of Silicon Valley’s most prominent chipmakers, are preparing to ship out some of their highly anticipated chips ahead of schedule.
Both companies are said to be planning to ship their new graphics cards before Jan. 20, Inauguration Day.
Trump has stated that he plans to quickly levy tariffs against China. And while both Nvidia and AMD operate in the U.S., they depend on Chinese companies for various stages of the chip-production process, including assembly and testing.
Citing local Chinese media, tech blog Wccftech reports that companies producing add-in boards for Nvidia and AMD are significantly ramping up production in an attempt to help their Big Tech partners start shipping out their next graphics-processing units to mainstream U.S. markets.
The report describes these decisions as “another move to squeeze in more profits since the tariffs are imminent to increase consumer prices, but manufacturers will get in more profits for the initial GPU stock.”
