The state-backed China Semiconductor Industry Association has issued a statement clarifying that, in accordance with the latest rule of the General Administration of Customs, the origin of chips – whether packaged or unpackaged – is defined by the location of wafer tape-out factories. The change comes amid an escalating tariff war between the US and China, whereby China’s Ministry of Finance has announced that it would increase tariffs on US products to 125 per cent from 84 per cent, effective on 12 April 2025, to match Trump’s tariffs. It is reported that: (1) the change is likely to affect US chip companies with domestic wafer fabs (e.g. Intel, Global Foundries, Texas Instruments, Micron, Analog Devices, Microchip, Skyworks and Qorvo) on the basis that these firms’ China-bound chips are produced and tape-outed at US-based plants and therefore may be possibly subject to China’s tariffs; (2) the change would not affect US fabless companies that design chips but do not have their own semiconductor plants (e.g. Nvidia, Apple, AMD, Qualcomm, Broadcom, and Marvell); and (3) chips designed by US companies and fabricated in US plants but packaged in Malaysia will now be classified as US-origin, subjecting them to the increased tariffs (source: https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202504/11/WS67f8c053a3104d9fd381ecf5.html)
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