The Trump administration is planning to exempt hyperscalers, including Amazon, Google, and Microsoft, from forthcoming chip tariffs.

According to a report from the FT, the government will provide the tech giants with carve-outs tied to investment commitments from Taiwanese companies, such as TSMC, which would be granted permission to allocate the tariff exemptions to US-based customers.

The move is seen as an effort to balance the President’s desire to reshore chip manufacturing with the reality that continued data center build-out will require companies to remain reliant on semiconductor imports in the near future.

However, the sources cited in the report cautioned that the plans were still in the discussion phase, with many details still unclear, noting that the President had yet to sign any agreement. Should the administration move forward with the plan, Taiwanese companies would be exempt from the incoming tariff in proportion to their planned investments.

In January 2026, the US government announced it had signed a trade agreement with Taiwan that would see the country’s semiconductor and technology companies invest at least $500 billion in chip production capacity in the United States.

Under the terms of the deal, tech companies have committed to $250bn in direct funding, with the Taiwanese government simultaneously agreeing to provide credit guarantees of at least $250 billion to further expand the semiconductor supply chain in the US.

As a result of the agreement, the US government will lower the tariff rate applied to goods from Taiwan to no more than 15 percent, down from 20 percent. Additionally, Taiwanese companies planning to build chip fabs in the US would be allowed to import 2.5 times the expected capacity of said facilities tariff-free, while those who have already constructed fabs will be allowed to import 1.5 times the capacity.

The same week that the trade deal was announced, the US government published a proclamation on the White House website outlining its intentions to introduce semiconductor tariffs once trade negotiations have concluded.

At the time, the government said tariffs would not apply when the chips are imported to support the buildout of the United States technology supply chain, meaning any chips that will be used in US-based data centers, non-data center consumer, civil industrial, and public sector applications, repairs and replacements, and R&D programs involving the use of the designated chips, would be exempt.