The world's biggest chip maker TSMC says it still can't keep up with demand for AI hardware despite tariff uncertainty
Uncertainty thanks to wildly fluctuating tariffs might be making it hard to predict how much your next graphics card is going to cost. But apparently it hasn't stopped Taiwanese chip fab TSMC from cranking out as many GPUs as humanly possible.
Speaking at TSMC's annual shareholder's meeting today (via Reuters), CEO C.C. Wei said tariffs had yet to significantly impact the company. "I can assure you that AI demand has always been very strong and it's consistently outpacing supply," Wei said.
He did concede that TSMC isn't entirely immune to tariffs. "Tariffs do have some impact on TSMC, but not directly. That's because tariffs are imposed on importers, not exporters. TSMC is an exporter. However, tariffs can lead to slightly higher prices, and when prices go up, demand may go down," he said.
But as things stand, the company is still running at maximum production volume. One aspect of TSMC's operations that perhaps aren't going at full tilt, however, is its investment in new production facilities or fabs in the US.
Reuters says Wei and President Trump have discussed difficulties in completing TSMC's full investment program, which totals $165 billion, within five years. Apparently, part of the problem is that tariffs increase the cost of production in the US because some equipment required to build out the fabs has to be imported from Asia. Wei says that President Trump told him, "Mr Wei, do your best, that's good enough."
Anywho, if you've been wondering whether there's any chance that tariffs might somehow conspire to make GPUs for gaming a little easier to come by, perhaps courtesy of reducing demand for AI chips, that doesn't seem to be the case.
That said, outside of the US, many if not most of Nvidia's GPUs can now be had at MSRP or even lower. So, it does look like graphics card pricing is finally trending towards something approaching normality.
It is, of course, very hard to say what will happen next. The US courts seem to be moving closer to putting guard rails around the more volatile elements of Trump's tariff fluctuations.
But until that emerging dispute has been escalated all the way to the Supreme Court, it's impossible to say how it will all play out. Put it this way, you'd be very brave to say it's game over for Trump's tariff escapades.
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