President Donald Trump has imposed rates that could reform the North American technical landscape, which added $ 50 billion to new costs for Canada and Mexico alone. The rates – 25% on all imports from Canada and Mexico, 10% on Chinese goods and 25% on the European Union technical components such as semiconductors – intend to disrupt supply chains, increase consumer prices and push large technology firms to domestic production.

By March 12, imported steel and aluminum will be hit with a rate of 25%, and by April 2, chips and other critical EU technical components will follow. With 80% of US watering capacity for important semiconductor sizes currently dependent on China and Taiwan, experts predict ripple effects throughout the technical sector – which affects everything from smartphones and cloud services to AI infrastructure.

See: Trump’s import tariffs: How they will shake prices, work and trade

How will these rates affect great technology and consumers?

Higher prices for hardware and cloud services

The new rates are expected to raise prices in the technical sector, which affects everything from smartphones and laptops to cloud storage and AI computer power.

The USA rely on China and Taiwan According to operating research for about 80% of its watering capacity for 20-45 Nm chips and about 70% for 50-180 Nm chips. Technical firms can try to move the acquisition to tariff -free countries such as India and Vietnam, but many will pass on the extra cost to consumers.

Consumer electronics manufacturers, such as laptops and smartphones, can also be affected if they import or compile different components of their products into tariff countries. Apple does indeed mainly manufacture its iPhones in China so that the devices may see a price increase in the US

Data centers and AI infrastructure have higher costs

The rates on aluminum and steel will also stab data center companies, as these materials are essential for server shelves, cooling systems and other infrastructure, which increase construction and equipment costs.

The additional expenses and possible disruption of the supply chain can be reflected in Wolk storage prices of AWS, Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure, as well as Saas and AI businesses using large-scale data processing. It can also delay plans to build new data centers that have earmarked businesses earmarked to meet the growing demand for AI.

See: Microsoft to invest $ 80 billion in AI data centers in fiscal 2025

Nevertheless, the intention is to reduce the dependence on foreign adversaries, and although it can lead higher prices for consumers in the short term, it also drives investments in domestic industries and increases the resilience of the supply chain.

North America’s supply chain is in danger

‘(The US is) a big producer, it’s a great consumer,’ said Christine McDaniel, senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center. Bloomberg. “We have products that go back and forth across the border, several times before it ends in a final product.”

McDaniel added that Mexico and Canada will pay more than $ 50 billion to rates for importing technology and slides into the US, “and it will come from the North American economy.” Canada exploits essential raw materials such as nickel and cobalt, while Mexico handles component, testing and packaging for large manufacturers such as Foxconn.

“It will all really harm the price of the US,” McDaniel said. “It will either eat in their profit margins, or they will pass it on to American consumers.”

Gil Luria, Head of Technology Research at Da Davidson, said Bloomberg The part of the reason why Trump implemented rates on EU goods is in retaliation for the region that makes “a habit” to fine US businesses, such as Apple, Google and Meta, for “whatever behavior they want to punish”. He added that the EU could be in response to ‘fight’, and the level at which it does, will determine the extent of the rates’ impact on the major technological players.

See: Meta to take concern about EU regulation directly to Trump, says head of global matters

Technical enterprises increase the US manufacturing

Even before the rates, many businesses have announced plans to build new facilities in the US, which is a tendency that is likely to continue.

This week, TSMC promised to expand its spending on building data centers in the US to $ 160 billion, which it considers the ‘largest single direct foreign investment in US history’.

Last month, Apple has announced it will spend $ 500 billion Over the next four years on manufacturing and research in the US. In January, the Stargate project was launched, in which people such as SoftBank, Openai and Oracle devote $ 500 billion to generative AI infrastructure in the US, including data centers.

At the press conference for the TSMC investment this week, US President Trump added that there are still ‘many (more companies) who want to announce’ Construction Projects Stateside. Such businesses can record the business of foreign competitors in the chip, cloud and other hardware markets.

Why does Trump post rates?

Tariff increases, even against top US trading partners, were an important feature of President Trump’s 2024 election campaign. After winning and accepting the presidency, he did his word well and announced his plan to draw up 25% rates on goods from Canada and Mexico. The next day he announced a 10% tariff on goods from China.

Historically, the US has always been on a trade deficiency and has imported more goods than exports. However, the deficit has increased steadily since 2001, and in 2023 the US trade deficit in goods was the largest in the world of more than $ 1 trillion. Rates help close the deficit by raising prices on imported goods to encourage Americans to purchase domestic or local alternatives. It can also encourage manufacturers to move their operations to the US