How Trump’s 100% Chip Tariff Could Shake Up ASX Tech and Mining Stocks

In the 1800s, gold was power. In 2025, it’s semiconductors.

On Wednesday, August 6th, Donald Trump announced a sweeping 100 percent tariff on imported chips, unless they’re made in America or from companies actively reshoring production. It’s not just a headline grab. It’s the latest move in a high-stakes global chess game where control over chip supply chains means control over innovation, defence, and economic leverage.

“So in other words, we’ll be putting a tariff of approximately 100 percent on chips and semiconductors. But if you’re building in the United States of America, there’s no charge,” Trump said.
“Even though you’re building and you’re not producing yet, in terms of the big numbers of jobs and all of the things building, if you’re building, there will be no charge.”

Behind the politics lies a bigger story. America’s 71 billion dollar monthly trade deficit has become the rallying cry for a manufacturing renaissance. And with TSMC building two massive foundries in Arizona, the battle to dominate the next generation of technology is moving from Taiwan to U.S. soil.

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Apple’s $100 Billion Bet on America’s Tech Future

Just months after political tensions and supply chain shocks rocked the tech world, Apple quietly doubled down on American resilience.

The company has committed an additional 100 billion dollars to U.S. suppliers over the next four years, bringing its total domestic investment to an eye-watering 600 billion dollars and adding 1,000 new jobs to the U.S. labour market.

At the heart of this shift is the new American Manufacturing Program, a nationwide alliance of innovation.

Apple has joined forces with an elite roster of partners: Corning for precision glass, Coherent and GlobalWafers for chip materials, and Broadcom, GlobalFoundries, and Texas Instruments to secure next-gen components.

When Chips Double in Price, Who Pays the Price?

A 100 percent tariff means foreign chipmakers entering the U.S. will suddenly cost double. This could price them out of the market entirely unless they absorb the cost and suffer margin compression or pass it on through higher prices.

The issue? If many companies choose the latter, it could trigger widespread chip shortages, especially in the short term. The U.S. currently doesn’t produce enough chips to meet domestic demand, and developing new manufacturing capacity takes two to five years.

In short, the tariff could cause near-term pain and shortages, particularly in fast-moving, high-volume sectors, while the U.S. rushes to rebuild its semiconductor supply chain. Long term, it reshapes global chip logistics, but the adjustment period could be volatile, inflationary, and fragmented.

Disruption of Global Partnerships

Semiconductor supply chains are some of the most globally entangled in modern industry, with design, fabrication, testing, and packaging often taking place in entirely different countries.

A 100 percent tariff on imported chips doesn’t just raise costs, it fractures the very economic logic of this international collaboration.

The New Risk Facing Small-Cap Chipmakers

Consider BrainChip (ASX: BRN), a small-cap Australian company pioneering neuromorphic processors under its Akida platform. Its key manufacturing partner is onsemi, a U.S.-listed giant with fabrication facilities spread across the globe.

If BrainChip’s chips are produced in onsemi’s non-U.S. fabs, such as those in Asia, and then shipped into the U.S., they may now face a steep import tariff. This instantly makes BrainChip’s products uncompetitive in one of the world’s most important tech markets.

What’s worse is that semiconductor computing is still a very early-stage, emerging industry, and small-cap companies from around the world are rushing in to capture market share. But these startups are walking a tightrope. With high operating costs, limited revenue, and constant cash burn, even a slight disruption can be devastating.

For companies like BrainChip, which rely on offshore manufacturing and are still scaling, this kind of policy shift could derail growth plans, squeeze margins, and shut the door to one of the world’s most important tech markets.