Apple CEO Tim Cook (R) shakes arms with U.S. President Donald Trump throughout an occasion within the Oval Office of the White House on August 6, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Win Mcnamee | Getty Images
Top tech executives are on the forefront of a current swathe of unprecedented offers with U.S. President Donald Trump.
In simply the previous couple of days, the White House confirmed that two U.S. chipmakers, Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices, could be allowed to promote superior chips to China in trade for the U.S. authorities receiving a 15% minimize of their revenues within the Asian nation.
Apple CEO Tim Cook, in the meantime, just lately announced plans to extend the agency’s U.S. funding dedication to $600 billion over the subsequent 4 years. The transfer was widely seen as a bid to get the tech big out of Trump’s crosshairs on tariffs — and seems to have labored for now.
Altogether, analysts say the offers present simply how essential it is for the world’s largest corporations to search out some tariff aid.
“The flurry of deal-making is an effort to secure lighter treatment from tariffs,” Paolo Pescatore, expertise analyst at PP Foresight, informed CNBC by e mail.
“In some shape or form, all of the big tech companies have been negatively impacted by tariffs. They can ill afford to fork out on millions of dollars in additional fees that will further dent profits as underlined by recent quarterly earnings,” Pescatore stated.
While the satan might be within the element of these agreements, Pescatore stated that Apple main the way with its accelerated U.S. funding will doubtless set off “a domino effect” throughout the trade.
Apple, for its half, has lengthy been considered one of the Big Tech companies most susceptible to simmering trade tensions between the U.S. and China.
Earlier this month, Trump introduced plans to impose a 100% tariff on imports of semiconductors and chips, albeit with an exemption for companies which can be “building in the United States.”
Apple, which depends on lots of of completely different chips for its units and incurred $800 million in tariff prices within the June quarter, is among the many companies exempt from the proposed tariffs.
A ‘hands-on’ strategy
The Nvidia and AMD take care of the Trump administration has in the meantime sparked intense debate over the potential affect on the chip giants’ companies and whether or not the U.S. authorities could search out related agreements with different companies.
Some strategists described the association as a “shakedown,” whereas others suggested it may even be unconstitutional and evaluating it to a tax on exports.
White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday that the legality and mechanics of the 15% export tax on Nvidia and AMD have been “still being ironed out.” She additionally hinted offers of this sort might develop to different corporations in future.
Ray Wang, founder and chairman of Constellation Research, described the Nvidia and AMD deal to pay 15% of China chip gross sales revenues to the U.S. authorities as “bizarre.”
Speaking on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Monday, Wang stated what is “really weird” is there is nonetheless some uncertainty over whether or not these chips signify a nationwide safety situation.
“If the answer is no, fine OK. The government is taking a cut out of it,” Wang stated. “Both Nvidia’s Jensen Huang and Lisa Su at AMD both decided that OK, we’ve got a way to get our chips into China and maybe there is something good coming out of it.”
Investor considerations
While buyers initially welcomed the deal as broadly optimistic for each Nvidia and AMD, which as soon as safer entry to the Chinese market, Wang stated some within the trade will however be involved.
“As an investor, you’re worried because then, is this an arbitrary decision by the government? Does every president get to play kingmaker in terms of these deals?” Wang stated.
“So, I think that’s really what the concern is, and we still have additional tariffs and trade deals to come from the China negotiations,” he added.
Looking forward, Dan Niles, founder and portfolio supervisor at Niles Investment Management, stated the query for buyers is whether or not the Trump administration’s “hands-on” strategy is optimistic or adverse for U.S. corporations.
“I think for each company, it is very different. So, it certainly it is something I take into account. The bigger thing for me is do you have some stability of policy? Do you have a policy one week and then it flips the next?” Niles informed CNBC’s “Closing Bell: Overtime” on Monday. “Right now, that is what concerns me a little bit more.”
— CNBC’s Arjun Kharpal and Kif Leswing contributed to this report.