Appeal to Taiwan

Trump wants chip production “back in the USA”

State-of-the-art chips are now mainly produced in Taiwan - even if they are developed in the USA.

(Bild: stock.adobe.com/Ivan Milovanov / IM Imagery OU)

US President Donald Trump has called on the chip industry to relocate more production to the USA. "Taiwan has taken the chip business away from us", said Trump in the White House. "We want it back in the US. And if they don't bring it back, we're not going to be very happy," he warned.

US chip manufacturers such as Intel once laid the foundations of the industry. However, cutting-edge chips in particular are now mainly produced in Taiwan - even if they are developed in the USA. Industry experts attribute this change in part to the fact that the authorities have been luring manufacturers with generous subsidies for several decades.

The major concern in the West is that the supply of smartphone chips, for example, would collapse if the Chinese government were to seal off Taiwan.

Taiwan signals cooperation
Taiwan's President Lai Ching-te held out the prospect of a concession to Trump following his statements. The Taiwanese government is prepared to work with democratic partners such as the USA to build a resilient and diversified supply chain for semiconductors, he told journalists.

Taipei will work closely with Washington to ensure that the US government understands Taiwan's indispensable role in strengthening US leadership in the high-tech industry, Lai said. TSMC, the chip giant of the democratically governed island republic, did not comment on Trump's statements when asked by dpa.

Trump does not like Biden's chip subsidies
Trump's predecessor Joe Biden had launched a subsidy program worth almost 40 billion dollars, which was intended to create incentives for the establishment of chip production in the USA. Europe followed suit with similar plans. During the election campaign, Trump criticized the plan as a waste of money and signaled that he would prefer to focus on tariffs instead.

"We had Intel, we had these great companies that were doing so well - and that was taken away from us and we want that business back," said Trump.

Intel has been trying for years to catch up with Taiwanese market leader TSMC in terms of production processes. Most recently, company boss Pat Gelsinger had to resign after the race to catch up dragged on. In Europe, Intel put the construction of a new factory in Magdeburg, for which billions in government support had been promised, on hold due to tight finances.