After TSMC, Samsung and SK Hynix also avoided Trump's 100% chip tariff by relying on American chip factories.

South Korea's top-level trade negotiator Lu Han-Jiu said on Thursday that two of South Korea's major storage chip giants, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, will not be subject to the 100% chip tariff imposed by the U.S. government. Lu emphasized on a radio program that, as part of the recent trade agreement between Washington and Seoul, South Korean chip exports will enjoy the most favorable chip tariff rates granted by the U.S. government. However, he did not provide further details. U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday local time that the U.S. will impose approximately 100% chip tariffs on all countries that do not produce or plan to produce chips in the U.S. However, companies committed to manufacturing in the U.S. or in the process of building chip manufacturing factories in the U.S. will not be affected. "In other words, we will impose approximately 100% tariffs on chips and semiconductor products. But as long as you build factories in the U.S., you will not be taxed. Companies like Apple, even if they have not yet started mass production, as long as they are in the factory construction phase or have already committed to participating in the U.S. factory construction plan, they will not be taxed," Trump said on Wednesday. After Trump's statement, Apple's stock price rose more than 3% in after-hours trading, while TSMC's stock price rose more than 4%. Apple announced on Wednesday an additional $100 billion investment in the U.S., with all iPhone and watch glass covers being made in the U.S. Apple had previously promised to invest $500 billion in the U.S. over the next four years, bringing Apple's total investment commitment in the U.S. this round to $600 billion. TSMC, known as the "King of Chip Outsourcing," has already completed the construction of the first large chip factory in Phoenix, the U.S., and is expected to start mass producing 4/5nm chips in the second half of the year, supplying high-end SoCs, next-generation high-performance AI GPUs, and AI ASICs for major U.S. customers such as Apple, Nvidia, AMD, Qualcomm, and Broadcom. TSMC's second chip fab in Phoenix has reached its structural completion and aims to start mass production in 2027-2028, planning to produce 3nm and more advanced 2nm chips. Trump's remarks are not an official announcement, and there are still many details that are unclear. Analysts believe that, although the specific details of the trade agreement between South Korea and the U.S. have not been disclosed, it can be imagined that Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix may be exempt from Trump's 100% chip tariff due to their investments in the U.S. Samsung Electronics will join Apple's U.S. supply chain and has already invested in building two large chip manufacturing factories in Austin and Taylor, Texas, as well as signing a $16.5 billion chip supply agreement with Tesla to produce Tesla's new AI6 chip at the Texas factory; SK Hynix has announced plans to build a large advanced chip packaging plant in Indiana and a large research facility for products in the artificial intelligence field. "Although both Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix have announced investment plans in the U.S., it remains doubtful whether SK Hynix's construction of an advanced chip packaging plant alone is sufficient to qualify for a complete tariff exemption," said Yu Da Securities senior analyst Bai Jixian cautiously about SK Hynix's ability to completely avoid tariffs. "In contrast, Samsung benefits not only from its investments in the U.S., but also from its latest news of joining Apple's U.S. supply chain." On Wednesday, Apple announced that Samsung Electronics will supply high-performance chips for iPhone and other Apple products from its chip production lines in Texas. After the opening of the South Korean stock market on Thursday, Samsung Electronics' stock price rose by 2.6%, leading the market, while SK Hynix's stock price rose by 0.6%, in line with the overall performance of the South Korean stock market. Both companies declined to comment on Trump's remarks. Second-quarter financial data showed that SK Hynix surpassed long-time storage chip leader Samsung Electronics for the first time in quarterly revenue, becoming the world's largest-scale storage chip manufacturer. Samsung Electronics' Q2 performance showed that its storage chip business revenue, including DRAM and NAND, decreased to 21.2 trillion Korean won (approximately $15.2 billion) for the three months ending in June. This number is lower than the 21.8 trillion Korean won reported by its competitor SK Hynix, marking SK Hynix's first time as the largest global scale storage chip manufacturer. The driving force behind this historic change is the strong demand for HBM memory chips from AI chip leader Nvidia and other major clients. Market research firm Counterpoint Research data shows that SK Hynix currently holds a 62% market share in the HBM market essential for Nvidia, which is much more profitable than traditional DRAM and NAND, while Samsung's market share is only 17% and is still working on securing Nvidia's certification for its most advanced HBM. High-Bandwidth Memory (HBM) is essentially a type of 3D-stacked synchronous dynamic random-access memory (SDRAM) and is part of the DRAM storage family.