Overview
- The Wall Street Journal reports the administration is exploring a requirement for chipmakers to produce in the U.S. as many semiconductors as their customers import.
- Companies that fail to sustain the 1:1 ratio over time would face tariffs, according to people familiar with the plan.
- The proposal includes a pledge-credit mechanism that would count committed U.S. output and permit tariff-free imports while new facilities are built and ramped.
- The White House framed the concept as protecting national and economic security and cautioned that coverage of policymaking should be treated as speculative until announced.
- Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has discussed the idea with semiconductor executives, and analysts say it could pressure suppliers such as TSMC to expand U.S. capacity.