AMD Unveils New Chip Using Latest TSMC Tech as Trump Tariffs Loom

TaiwanPlus News

California-based tech firm AMD unveils its next-generation chip codenamed "Venice" in collaboration with Taiwan's TSMC, despite looming chip tariffs from U.S. President Donald Trump.  TaiwanPlus speaks to Jack Chen, chair and CEO of Planet Technology, a Taiwan-based IP network transmission firm, about how it's managing the uncertainty.

Transcript

00:00Uncertainty over Washington's tariff policy continues, with U.S. President Donald Trump

00:06pledging specific tariffs on sectors like chips and pharmaceuticals soon.

00:13For American tech firm AMD, it's moving forward with its business plans, revealing its next-gen

00:20chip, codenamed Venice, which uses Taiwanese chip giant TSMC's two-nanometer process technology,

00:27the most advanced on the market so far. The tech is scheduled to hit mass production this year,

00:35only in Taiwan. Speaking to university students in Taipei, AMD's CEO Lisa Su reiterated Taiwan's key

00:43role in American chip innovation. From a United States standpoint, I think we do rely on a lot

00:51of the Taiwan manufacturing ecosystem, and trying to build resilience into that ecosystem is a

00:57important. Chips have so far been exempted from Trump's sweeping so-called reciprocal tariffs,

01:04a policy that caused days of market turmoil. That policy, impacting a slew of countries,

01:10including Taiwan, now paused for 90 days for negotiations. Just days ago, a U.S. Customs

01:17notice also exempted key consumer electronics from the levy, sending a wave of relief over the tech

01:24sector. Trump's team then backtracking on those exclusions. Taiwan, which has already had its first

01:31talk with the U.S., says it's keeping an open mind. Trump's inconsistent policy potentially damaging

01:52to the U.S.'s credibility in negotiations. It hurts the talks, honestly. The thing that everyone will want to

02:00talk about is commitments. They want clarity. And at this point, we are not seeing clarity from this

02:08administration. So it's hard for, let's say, a leader like President Lai to have his team come to

02:15Washington and say, look, we're willing to give you all these things. But for what end?

02:21For firms in Taiwan, the now paused tariff Trump imposed on the country's goods was shocking.

02:2832 percent on Taiwan. Were you expecting that number at all? Of course not.

02:34Here at Planet Technology, chair and CEO Jack Chen says they're one of the lucky ones. His company makes

02:41devices for internet connectivity like routers in the U.S. only accounts for about 10 percent of his

02:48global business. They also fall under the category of electronics recently exempted from tariffs according

02:55to U.S. customs. But with no guarantee of how long that will last, Chen is still making plans around

03:02the uncertainty. Well, you know, the tariffs is not controlled by ourselves. We only can follow. We have to keep

03:13ourselves always in continuing in the R&D commitment to development more and more innovative latest technology

03:26into the market. That's what we can do. But in other way, we have to think about to find other

03:34opportunity apart from the United States. Chen says his U.S. customers are more like partners as their

03:42business relationships have taken years to build. That's now threatened by the tariffs, which are likely

03:49to turn into added costs for his U.S. clients. As policies coming out of the White House flip back

03:56and forth and negotiations are still underway, businesses are focusing on the few things that

04:02are certain, like the need to diversify away from the U.S., despite it being the world's largest

04:09consumer market. Andie Shue and Joy Sen in New Taipei for Taiwan Plus.

Category

Transcript

Recommended