Taiwan’s TSMC, which is the world’s largest chipmaker, has long faced demands to move more of its production away from Taiwan.

The company has pledged to invest more than $65 billion in three factories in Arizona, one of which began production in late 2024.

TSMC plans a second facility in Japan and last year it broke ground on its first European plant.

But there are concerns Taiwan could lose its “silicon” protection if its companies build too many factories overseas.

“It’s a very dicey situation that they’re in,” Dan Hutcheson, a California-based senior research fellow at specialist platform TechInsights, told AFP.

“It’s in (Taiwan’s) interest to move some of their manufacturing (to the United States), but not to give it all away, because if they give it all away, then they lose their importance.”

Recession threat

Taiwan’s government is still calculating the potential impact of Trump’s tariffs and has flagged support for affected industries.

One determining factor would be whether levies are applied only to chips shipped to the United States or also on chips in finished products.