Trump wants to review Chips Act funding and ‘take back’ Taiwan’s semiconductor dominance

Former US President Joe Biden pushed through the Chips Act in an attempt to boost the US semiconductor industry. Now, a report claims that Donald Trump wants to review the current policies and conditions for the awarding of chip-related state funding. Plus, Trump claims that he wants to take back the chip business taken by Taiwan.

The US should take Taiwan’s position in the global chip business, Trump reportedly thinks

Currently, TSMC is the most reputable semiconductor foundry in the world. All the big names in the tech industry want the Taiwanese company to produce their chips. Companies like NVIDIA or Qualcomm have turned to TSMC factories to produce their flagship AI chips or SoCs for mobile phones, for example. Donald Trump is aware of this and, according to Reuters, wants the US to take over Taiwan’s position in the industry.

Part of Trump’s strategy will be to impose tariffs on imported semiconductors. The measure seeks to encourage American companies to turn to local products and will mainly affect semiconductors from Taiwan and China. Big Taiwanese companies such as MediaTek are already preparing for the tariffs.

Chips Act funding policies and conditions may be under review

According to reports, the US president has also been trying to renegotiate the conditions of the Chips Act. This could include reviewing future awards. The 2022 Chips Act provides for a pool of $39 billion in funding to chip companies that meet certain conditions. The main condition was to set up factories in the United States.

However, the White House is reportedly concerned about some of the grant terms. According to the report, the list includes the obligation to hire unionized labor to set up factories and to offer affordable child care to workers.

GlobalWafers, one of the beneficiaries of the Chips Act, said it had not received information about changes in the terms of its previous grants. However, a spokesperson confirmed that the current grant policies “are now under review for all Chips Direct Funding Agreements” by the Trump cabinet.

Trump may be upset over Chips Act beneficiaries investing funds in China

The Washington administration is also reportedly upset that companies that received funds from the Chips Act announced large investments for expansion in China. However, the Chips Act’s conditions allowed some investments in China. This is likely another policy the Trump administration is looking to change.

Intel, one of the beneficiaries, announced last year a $300 million investment to set up an assembly and testing facility in China. The company has received about $2.2 billion in subsidies under the Chips Act. TSMC, which also has large facilities in China, received about $1.5 billion during the Biden administration.