President-elect Donald Trump will be sworn in on January 20 and many big-name tech leaders will be present at the ceremony. TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) however has decided against donating to or attending Trump’s inauguration.
Major tech companies like Google, Apple, Microsoft, Meta and OpenAI have donated vast sums to the inaugural ceremony of the incoming president. Notably, these donations exceeded those made to the previous administration, almost assuredly because tech companies want to get on Trump’s good side.
Doing so is crucial for these companies to land exemptions from Donald Trump’s proposed tariffs which could make business a lot more difficult. Companies who are not exempted from these tariffs will either have to pass on the increased cost to consumers or cut corners for their products.
TSMC CEO C.C Wei said that the company will neither be donating to the inaugural ceremony or sending anyone to attend. Wei said that this was because TSMC likes to keep a low profile but I think there might just be something a bit deeper at play here.
Apple CEO Tim Cook got the company exempted from tariffs during Trump’s first term. | Image credit — Apple
Trump has said before that TSMC has “stolen” American business and placed it in Taiwan. Other similar remarks indicate that the incoming president may pose a threat to TSMC’s business model. After these statements TSMC halted work on its U.S. plant as it waits to see what Trump will do after taking office.
A donation to the inauguration isn’t guaranteed to make TSMC’s troubles go away so I suppose it kind of makes sense for the company to just stay back and observe for the time being. The tariff threats may turn out to be a nothingburger and TSMC may continue its operations as usual.
But if Trump is serious about it all then TSMC may have to completely reevaluate how it conducts business with the U.S. The company is one of those entities that is “too large to fail” and making enemies with it will only hurt U.S. businesses for the near future.
Then again TSMC might just be betting on Apple and other companies reliant on its chips to get Trump off of its back.
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Abdullah loves smartphones, Virtual Reality, and audio gear. Though he covers a wide range of news his favorite is always when he gets to talk about the newest VR venture or when Apple sets the industry ablaze with another phenomenal release.
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