[News Today] AI chips tariffs impact on Korean firms

[LEAD]
The U.S. has decided to impose a 25 percent tariff on certain AI chips bound for export, a move widely seen as targeting China. While the immediate impact on Korean companies may be limited, Washington has begun a partial rollout of semiconductor tariffs. The move has put both the government and industry on alert for possible expansion.

[REPORT]
The targets of Trump's new tariff plans are NVIDIA and AMD's artificial intelligence semiconductors produced for exports.

The two tech companies' AI chips are produced entirely at TSMC in Taiwan and imported into the U.S. before being re-exported to other countries.

Chinese companies are known to have ordered more than two million NVIDIA's H200 chips, way more than 700,000 currently available at NVIDIA.

The Trump administration's latest 25% tariff appears to have targeted China, a sort of a toll to pressure the country.

For now, the impact on the Korean semiconductor industry appears to be limited.

Kim Yang-paeng / Korea Institute for Industrial Economics & Trade
Korea's HBM may have to go through the U.S. instead of China. Korea may feel the pressure if such an unprecedented event occurs.

Korea's Trade Minister Yeo Han-koo currently in the U.S. for tariff talks has postponed his return flight to find out the details.

Yeo Han-koo / Trade Minister
I'm staying for another day to find out what has happened and whom I should meet here.

The Korean government and the semiconductor industry are watching to see if this measure heralds the implementation of Washington's long-delayed tariff plan on semiconductors.

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