Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive officer of Meta Platforms Inc., and U.S. President Donald Trump during a dinner with tech leaders in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, DC, U.S., on Sept. 4, 2025.
President Donald Trump has reiterated a warning that he will soon impose "fairly substantial" tariffs on semiconductor imports from companies that do not shift production to the U.S., but will spare firms like Apple that expand investments domestically.
Trump made the comments Thursday night during a dinner at the White House with more than two dozen major tech leaders, including Apple CEO Tim Cook, Meta 's Mark Zuckerberg and Oracle CEO Safra Catz.
"I've discussed it with the people here, chips and semiconductors, and we'll be putting tariffs on companies that aren't coming in," the President said.
"We'll be putting a tariff very shortly. You probably are hearing we'll be putting a fairly substantial tariff, or not that high, but a fairly substantial tariff."
Trump had said last month during an event with Cook that he would impose a 100% tariff on semiconductor imports, while exempting products from companies that move their manufacturing to the U.S. At the time, Apple pledged to spend an additional $100 billion on a domestic manufacturing initiative, adding on a $500 billion announcement that Apple made in February.
During Thursday's event, Trump noted that "Tim Cook would be in pretty good shape," regarding the potential import levies.
The U.S. has been working to onshore its semiconductor supply chain for many years now. Since 2020, the world's largest semiconductor companies, such as TSMC and Samsung Electronics, have committed hundreds of billions of dollars to building plants in the U.S.