US Considers Fresh Round of Tariffs On Semiconductors (cnbc.com) 166
An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNBC: U.S. President Donald Trump's administration is reportedly considering new tariffs on semiconductors used in the U.S., as tech giants race to beat China in the artificial intelligence infrastructure build-out. The duties will be imposed on an expanded range of tech products made alongside chips, including laptops, data center servers and gaming hardware, eight people familiar with the matter told Politico in a report published Thursday.
The measures, which are still in the early phases and subject to significant changes over the next few months, will be introduced via a staggered rollout period, according to the report. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNBC, but told Politico: "Reshoring semiconductor manufacturing is a top priority for President Trump, whose policies have already secured hundreds of billions of dollars of investments in this key sector." The tech industry is pushing back on the tariffs, warning they could raise chip costs, slow data-center construction, and undermine the very AI expansion the administration wants to promote. "This may be the single dumbest way imaginable to pursue American dominance in AI," said one tech official from a major industry group that also served in the first Trump administration. "It's like kneecapping yourself at the starting line."
Lobbyists say they have repeatedly urged officials to "tread carefully" because U.S. demand is surging while domestic chip capacity remains far too limited. The industry argues that factories take years to build and current domestic production cannot come close to satisfying demand.
One tech representative said "the math literally just does not work," noting that proposed duty-free allowances "wouldn't cover the hyperscalers alone." Meanwhile, the Computer and Communications Industry Association warned that higher costs and uncertainty could put the massive data-center buildout "in jeopardy."
The measures, which are still in the early phases and subject to significant changes over the next few months, will be introduced via a staggered rollout period, according to the report. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNBC, but told Politico: "Reshoring semiconductor manufacturing is a top priority for President Trump, whose policies have already secured hundreds of billions of dollars of investments in this key sector." The tech industry is pushing back on the tariffs, warning they could raise chip costs, slow data-center construction, and undermine the very AI expansion the administration wants to promote. "This may be the single dumbest way imaginable to pursue American dominance in AI," said one tech official from a major industry group that also served in the first Trump administration. "It's like kneecapping yourself at the starting line."
Lobbyists say they have repeatedly urged officials to "tread carefully" because U.S. demand is surging while domestic chip capacity remains far too limited. The industry argues that factories take years to build and current domestic production cannot come close to satisfying demand.
One tech representative said "the math literally just does not work," noting that proposed duty-free allowances "wouldn't cover the hyperscalers alone." Meanwhile, the Computer and Communications Industry Association warned that higher costs and uncertainty could put the massive data-center buildout "in jeopardy."
Single dumbest way? (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:Single dumbest way? (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm struggling to understand the logic, even from a MAGA perspective. How does making tech more expensive for US companies help them compete against Chinese companies?
Re:Single dumbest way? (Score:5, Interesting)
There is no logic.
Trump is genuinely a retard. It is not just that we don't like his societal choices or his morality. He is really that dumb. He made clear he believes tariffs is some tax the exporters pay themselves.
Also, the tech stocks will crater, Barron Trump will buy the dip and then the orang-outang will cancel the tariffs and Barron will make tons of money.
A lot is because he can. (Score:2)
Because he is not (currently) a dictator, he can't make his own laws. He's limited in what he can do.
Tariffs are one of the few things in which he is mostly able to do unilaterally. When all you've got is a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail.
Re:A lot is because he can. (Score:4, Informative)
Because he is not (currently) a dictator, he can't make his own laws. He's limited in what he can do.
Tariffs are one of the few things in which he is mostly able to do unilaterally. When all you've got is a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail.
To be fair, the Supreme Court judged that Trump does not have that authority [wikipedia.org]. The Supreme Court that has enough corrupt members that his executive order trying to annul the fourteenth amendment was struck down just 6-3 rather than the obvious 9-0 with a comment describing how to actually change the constitution.
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Tariffs are one of the things he is not supposed to do, at all. Trump is using emergency powers to usurp arguably one of the most important powers a government wields.
The US constitution, backed up by lots and lots of text from the authors of it, assign the power of taxation and allocating those funds to congress, specifically to balance the power of the executive. That wasn't their idea either, it's something England did and does, and a bunch of other European monarchies, going all the way back to the midd
Re:Single dumbest way? (Score:4, Insightful)
While I certainly don't think he's a genius, I think holding the world's largest economy hostage to personally enrich himself and his family in schemes that take a lot of effort to prove requires at least a moderate level of intelligence. And a far greater degree of evil.
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No, I'd say it requires an awful lot of help from those around him, and I look forward to it all being exposed in the future - hopefully not the distant future.
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Trump is demented. That's a different disability.
While he was never a good legal businessman, he seems to have been a capable gangster. But now he's lost most of his marbles, and the rest are rolling away rapidly.
Re:Single dumbest way? (Score:5, Informative)
The logic is economic autarky -- the belief that we're always better off having complete political sovereignty over every part of our supply chains than having to depend on imports for anything.
This is likely also behind Trump's trade war with Canada. His demands with Canada aren't about discirimatory tariffs -- those were negotiated away with NAFTA then re-negotiated in his first term. His demands are now infringe on Canadian sovereignty, to give US control of Canada's external trade policy, and even on its internal markets (e.g., the use of French in Canadian internal commerce). Symbolically, that's why he wants to rename Lake Ontario to "Lake America". HIs establishment of US control over the Venezuelan oil industry is his greatest foreign policy achievement -- although it's not clear he understands the legal limits on what he can do with their money.
There's a foreign and military policy angle to this too: Taiwan is absolutely critical to the US economy, so we are absolutely committed to defend them if China invades. Semiconductor autarky would mean it's not our problem.
The problem with autarky is that even if it's a good idea (which economists don't believe), you can't conjure it into existence overnight. It will take many years, possibly decades for the US to replace the Taiwan's semiconductor industry. In effect, the administration is proposing to inflict the very damage on the US economy that a Chinese invasion of Taiwan would inflict.
And, once the US has voluntarily self-inflicted that damage, China would be free to invade Taiwan.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
A tariff is a way of punishing Canada
Re: Single dumbest way? (Score:4, Insightful)
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Re: Single dumbest way? (Score:5, Insightful)
if you agree with one candidate on 80% of stuff, and the other on 5%, who to vote for is clear.
If you agree with Trump on 80% of what he's doing I feel genuinely sorry for you.
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Why feel sorry for people who are arseholes and proud of it?
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Why feel sorry for people who are arseholes and proud of it?
In this case it's more than just being arseholes, though this is part of it. I feel sorry for them because they have a tarnished soul.
Re: Single dumbest way? (Score:4, Funny)
Her belief is work hard and die young to avoid the government needing to pay for your healthcare. She actually seems to be bragging about the system killing her parents. And I've no doubt the solution to both SS and Medicare funding from her will be terminate the programs. Because that is what a good citizen would want.
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Her belief is work hard and die young to avoid the government needing to pay for your healthcare. She actually seems to be bragging about the system killing her parents
"I suffered, so you should too"
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You don't have to agree with someone 100% to vote for them. I don't support these tariffs. They aren't helping. But if you agree with one candidate on 80% of stuff, and the other on 5%, who to vote for is clear.
Is destroying the country's economic competitiveness part of the 80% or part of the 20%?
Re: Single dumbest way? (Score:2)
It's not stupid if chaos and destruction are the goals. It's only evil.
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Idiocracy (Score:3)
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To be fair, I was also curious what Trump would do when he didn't have to worry about reelection or, indeed, living much past the end of his term. Curious in the way you see the edge of a cliff and wonder what it would be like to jump off.
Re:Idiocracy (Score:4, Interesting)
To be fair, I was also curious what Trump would do when he didn't have to worry about reelection or, indeed, living much past the end of his term. Curious in the way you see the edge of a cliff and wonder what it would be like to jump off.
For example, threaten to demolish [npr.org] the Kennedy Center if he can't add his name to it.
Re:Idiocracy (Score:5, Insightful)
To be fair, I was also curious what Trump would do when he didn't have to worry about reelection or, indeed, living much past the end of his term. Curious in the way you see the edge of a cliff and wonder what it would be like to jump off.
For example, threaten to demolish [npr.org] the Kennedy Center if he can't add his name to it.
Or this, so childish. Trump to skip 9/11 remembrance at Ground Zero because they wouldn’t let him give a speech [independent.co.uk]
The 9/11 Memorial and Museum in New York City does not allow politicians to speak at Ground Zero to maintain a nonpartisan stance.
The president had initially intended to join former presidents and other officials in Manhattan on September 11, but those plans were changed after memorial planners seemingly reminded Trump’s team that politicians are barred from speaking at the site to maintain its nonpartisan stance, the New York Times reported.
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Saw that. Just inconceivable and zero pushback from the cult.
Especially childish behavior as the prohibition against speeches is for all politicians.
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a priori this seems different; they say: still in the early phases and subject to significant changes over the next few months, will be introduced via a staggered rollout period. that doesn't even remotely sound like trump's usual reckless and impulsive acting out (maybe he isn't even involved in this?) and could mean a cautious and sensible approach to promoting us semiconductor industry, which isn't a bad idea if it is supported by further policies and investments. tariffs alone will ofc do little, except
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A sensible approach? The CHIPS Act was sensible. Putting tariffs on raw materials and on equipment needed to build and then expecting an industry to pop up because you constrained supply is just stupid. We aren't actually the only consumer and as farmers found his last term sometimes markets just go away and find other customers.
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We all saw what happened the first time around, and a majority thought, "Let's do this again! Better this than some woman who laughs funny."
Well... "majority" means more than half and Trump only got 49.8% (77,302,580) of the popular vote and Harris got 48.3% (75,017,613). An estimated 36% (89 million) eligible voters didn't even vote - so only about 64% of eligible voters actually voted. This means that Trump only got about 31% of all eligible votes. More people didn't vote than voted for either individual candidate. So it's more like tyranny of the more motivated minority. Voting matters people. Also, my personal feeling is that if you
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As for mandatory voting, I fail to see how getting more uneducated voters into voting boxes helps anything. Not uneducated in terms of schooling, but uneducated about what they're actually voting on. Anyone who is only voting because they are forced to is not going to spend the time to learn abou
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As for mandatory voting, I fail to see how getting more uneducated voters into voting boxes helps anything. Not uneducated in terms of schooling, but uneducated about what they're actually voting on. Anyone who is only voting because they are forced to is not going to spend the time to learn about the issues; they'll vote for the guy who bought the most billboards.
Based on interviews with actual voters that I've seen/read - especially MAGA voters and especially those now regretting their vote - I fail to see any substantial difference compared to the point you're making. It seems even the "educated voter" often only sees/hears/reads what they want to see/hear/read.
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BUT it is your civic responsibility to vote. Full stop.
Agreed.
There really should be a small penalty for not doing so, say 10 buck on your tax return.
This has been tried before - with the ACA mandate (see below). Maybe if a tax credit was offered? I can think of numerous problems either way, mostly practical. The federal government would have to correlate tax return with voter roles and those who actually voted. I don't see that going over well with people, even though voter roles are public. Also, some people may have specific reasons for not voting, like not wanting to end up on jury roles...
It *is* possible though, Australia and 20 oth
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The result being an unbalanced risk pool, insurers pulling out, and escalating costs for those remaining. But hey, they Owned the Libs!!!111!!
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(or one of the tiny handful that split electors)
That would be Maine and Nebraska. The other 48 states [congress.gov] use winner-take-all. Which hardly seems "representative".
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Except that your vote only counts if you live in a purple county in a purple state (or one of the tiny handful that split electors).
Consider getting your state to join the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact [nationalpopularvote.com].
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If we used the popular vote, then I'd be more amenable to this mindset. Personally, I skipped the top of the ticket because I don't live in one of the 43 states that mattered.
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If we used the popular vote, then I'd be more amenable to this mindset. Personally, I skipped the top of the ticket because I don't live in one of the 43 states that mattered.
Or at least proportional electoral votes in all states instead of the winner take all that 48 states use [congress.gov] - Maine and Nebraska use a proportional formula (described at that link).
Trump's reply (Score:3)
One tech representative said "the math literally just does not work,"
"It was my understanding that there would be no math."
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Probably also what the MAGA morons thought. And no physical reality either. Well, guess what ...
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He told them other countries would pay for the tariffs. I learned what a tariff was back in 6th grade.
But belonging to a cult will do that to a person.
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Since I have offended a cult member by stating facts, I shall give citations.
https://archive.ph/Eth0K#selec... [archive.ph]
“No, I’m going to impose a tariff on the outside world, and they’re going to pay it for their privilege of coming in and robbing our jobs and robbing our companies for years and years.”
He added: “The most beautiful word is the word tariff because it’s going to make us so rich, and we’re going to save our companies.”
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When I was an undergrad someone figured that the CS students would benefit from a compulsory business course. So we're all sitting there while a business professor explains supply, demand, and price optimization. He proceeded to walk us through very carefully drawing a graph, plotting lines (the course assumed they were linear) for supply and demand, and measuring with a ruler the location of the intersection point.
We all stared for a bit and th
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Hahahah, nice!
Sure... (Score:2)
The solution? Add another "Tax" on things.
"Slow clap" great job
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To be fair, he is still making himself richer and he is still not in prison. That is impressive, but not in any good way.
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American's #1 issue these days: Affordability.
The solution? Add another "Tax" on things.
Well... Trump (still) says "affordability" is a hoax and foreign companies and countries pay the tariffs. The first is demonstrably wrong (just go buy food, gas...), the second is literally wrong (just look it up). He keeps pushing this and his followers keep going along with it. Boggles the mind. The Wharton School must be re-thinking the degree they gave Trump, 'cause it doesn't seem like he earned it...
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as the argument.
Trump just picked sides in "AI debate" (Score:2)
It looks like Comrade Trump just now chose the "no more datacenters!" team. His punitive taxes are one of the best tools we have to sanction the US economy, keeping growth down and inflation up.
I used to think Comrade Trump's Greenpeace membership was a sham, but over the last year he's proven himself to be a true believer that American industries all need to be shut down. First America, then The World! It's time humanity went back to hunting and gathering. FUCK FARMERS!
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That will last exactly until the mid-term votes are cast. He is getting desperate and trying anything now.
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It'll last until next news cycle.
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As bad as his dementia now is, possibly.
Re:Trump just picked sides in "AI debate" (Score:5, Insightful)
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trump considers fresh round of sanctions on US (Score:5, Insightful)
Please get a new idea (Score:5, Informative)
Ironically for Republicans the only economic tool they seems to capable of using these days is taxes, taxes and more taxes.
And yet since 2000 it turns out that the Bush and Trump tax cuts are going to end up responsible for nearly 50% of US debt [ms.now] and Trump himself may end up responsible for 25% of all US debt. Let that sink in and accept the fact that when Republicans tell you they want balanced budgets and fiscal responsibility they are lying to your face.
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We can say that but the public seems to disagree as they don't like services being cut and Republicans don't seem to want to cut anything meaningful and they also love subsidies and Federal spending and we can't say it's wasteful spending because we've had multiple Republican admins, Congess majorities and the glorious DOGE and no huge waste has ever been uncovered so seems like we're left with one option: raise revenues.
Conservatives love comparing the US economy with a home economy so if you had the optio
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Doge was as successful as the cyber truck:)
That comparison is incredibly unfair to the Cybertruck.
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If Tesla had made a more traditional truck it's mass production model and made the Cybertruck as a like a 20K limited run they'd both be considered success, The idea you could mass market that thing is just letting cocaine make decisions.
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What’s stopping the republicans who control all 3 branches?
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No Democrat is going to bring down the debt.
Looking at history [counterpunch.org] starting with President Carter: "Every Democratic president of the last half century has left with a deficit that was lower, measured as a share of GDP, than the one they came in with, except Obama, who left it unchanged. By contrast, every Republican president has left with a considerably higher deficit than what they inherited."
This only considers the party of the US President. Other analyses suggest that when the President and Congress are of different parties, the deficit is smaller
WTF (Score:2)
WTF is he doing? He's like actively trying to destroy the US!
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He does whatever Stephen Miller whispers into his ear. He's nothing more than the useful idiot cult leader.
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Yes he does.
He has been chosen by the Soviets in hope he could be used to cripple the USA. He is not the only one. They threw a lot of things to the wall and looked what stuck. The Russians are not playing 4D chess, it just turns out Trump is their most efficient asset.
Well described here: https://desk-russie.info/2025/... [desk-russie.info]
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No, he's not actively trying to destroy the US. His actions are meant to enrich himself. To a sociopath such as he the destruction of an entire nation is of no consequence as long as the money keeps coming to him.
The US is being destroyed by his apathy, not malice.
China probably loveing it. (Score:2)
China is probably very happy with this development.
Good way to kneecap all your industries in one go. Pretty much every new modern microwave to your TV to your automobile have at least 1 or more chips in them.
Only things which may not have a chip are things which dont use power. Maybe your bed (assuming not one of the "smart beds"), chair, baseball bat, etc.
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For the kool aid drinkers (Score:2)
History has shown this ends poorly.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
This is literally just a way to shift tax burden (Score:2)
Basically they want to create a national sales tax because that puts the tax burden for paying for the military and the police and everything onto people who spend most of their income buying things. That's you.
So this is just a way to make you the working Man pay the taxes for the people who own things for a living instead of working for a living.
The idea that we have people who own things for a living in ou
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There is a grand conspiracy theory about imposing a sales tax to get rid of income tax but the numbers just don't work out. Especially when your sales tax is limited to imports.
In reality, the US deficit is 6% of GDP. If that doesn't change then there's going to be hell to pay, the only argument is about when. There are two ways to fix it: spend less or make more. Cutting taxes to stimulate an economy sounds great, and the voters love it, but it didn't work. Cutting spending is less politically acceptable b
Turns out it wasn't woke coming for your games (Score:2)
Right now we're just barely able to skate by because there's a glut of old hardware floating around that could be sold for cheap. Like how Sega mega drives are available in third world countries these days.
In a few more years that's basically where we're going to be at. Video gaming will be a luxury like it was in the early '70s. And you certainly won't be
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$900 transparent XBox, sells out immediately, zero improvements over existing opaque black plastic xbox.
INSANITY
Anti-capitalist shmucks (Score:2)
The GOP seems to think that Capitalism = mean to poor people, nice to rich people. No. Capitalism = Free market = no tariffs.
Tariffs = Mercantilism.
Capitalism hates Mercantilism. Capitalism was created because Mercantilism did not work, it was created as a replacement for it.
The GOP is not and has not been capitalistic for quite some time.
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Well, no. We got where we are by not doing it that way. Plus, our political system doesn't work with it.
This is not a GOP thing, it's a Trump populist thing. The party is not pleased. There are a lot of members in Congress that are screaming at him every day. I also think it's a mistake. I was fine with it when it was
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Private criticism is by definition ineffective. It is designed to inform without punish. It is in reality folding, letting Trump win.
Trump is doing a performance. He does everything as a performance without understanding the real life consequences of things.
He insults NATO publicly and wonders why they don't support his war. Why? Because he expects that only the MAGA idiots will observe the performance and is shocked that everyone else observes it and believes it.
The thing is, NATO spend decades learn
Tariffs on duty-free (Score:2)
Next thing you know duty-free won't be duty-free anymore.
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Next thing you know duty-free won't be duty-free anymore.
Well free trade agreements already don't mean free trade.
Tariff the data centers, not me! (Score:2)
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But they don't make memory, and that's the real killer right now. And the datacenters have already bought it all.
Re: Tariff the data centers, not me! (Score:2)
Nvidia doesn't need to care because people are stupid and will buy their shit whether they are assholes or not. A few informed customers may switch but most people aren't informed.
The Republican plan to dumb down voters until they are stupid enough to vote Republican has secondary effects, who knew?
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You are confusing two different things. Chip makers don't care WHO buys the chips, just who will spend the most on those chips. It's all the same to them. Right now, datacenters will pay much more for the same silicon then a consumer will. Chip makers responded buy focusing their production on higher value chips. Since there are only a few chip makers, we're screwed as consumers.
Whenever the chip makers decide to rebalance production to consumer gear, we'll still be sitting here waiting to buy. It's a great
Fuck You, Donald Trump (Score:2)
First President to completely send the US economy into freefall TWICE. We should make him drink from the firehose.
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However, the current economic
Trump Policy (Score:2)
Take the thing we have barely the capacity to produce, almost all industries in the US depend on, and make it more expensive. Should help the economy.
How does this punish China? (Score:3)
By making it harder for US companies to use AI, how does that harm China? Already, businesses are feeling the squeeze. I'm just wondering if this is regulatory capture on a higher level, ensuring the squeezes on hardware prices by US vendors can't be fixed by other countries.
Already, the RAM and SSD price hikes are not affecting other countries nearly as much as the US.
And we will keep shooting ourselves in the foot (Score:3)
And we will keep shooting ourselves in the foot until the situation improves.
When it rains, it pours? (Score:2)
Might the logic behind this be this?: RAM is expensive. Storage is expensive. Nobody's going to buy a computer anyway, so you might as well make the other components more expensive too.
It even goes with Trump's more general agenda to make everything more expensive.
Have to give unearned profits for shareholders (Score:2)
The stupid thing is (Score:2)
this will just curb demand. Last time I checked no one in modern countries wants to assemble electronics, we have given this task to other economies. China is 50% less, Taiwan is 30% less than US manufacture. So yeah, people will move stuff to the us, but we can't build an entire industrial supply chain overnight, this will take years. And that's if the tariff keeps rolling, better to wait a few years/months for courts to rule or laws to change. If you want to create industrial change, do it with incentives
Billionaire tech-bro appeasement (Score:2)
This is what appeasement of a strong-man douchebag dictator gets you. They will always come back looking for more - that's how extortion works. They know you're willing to kick up, so kick up you will.