By Bradley Olson and Rolfe Winkler

Chip maker Nvidia unveiled plans Monday to produce new made-in-America supercomputers that power artificial intelligence, just one day after the Trump administration said tariffs were coming for semiconductor-reliant imports.

But just how much of Nvidia's news was really new?

The chip maker said it would make AI supercomputers with contract manufacturers in Texas, its first public disclosure of a plan that would amplify ongoing U.S. efforts to bring semiconductor production back to domestic markets.

A darling of the global AI boom, Nvidia promised an eye-popping $500 billion in spending in the coming years, an announcement that echoed a similar goal disclosed by Apple in February.

The spending goal was no surprise to analysts, nor were Nvidia's projections for "hundreds of thousands" new jobs, but the AI manufacturing plans in the Lone Star state -- which the company said it would achieve with Taiwanese partners such as Foxconn and Wistron -- were a revelation.

Nvidia is joining the ranks of U.S. tech companies that are seeking to meet President Trump's demands to revitalize the U.S. economy through manufacturing. In February, Apple said it would invest $500 billion in the U.S. over four years, a plan it touted would support 20,000 jobs and onshore some AI server manufacturing in Houston.

Apple has also studied potentially bringing some iPhone production into the U.S., according to people familiar with the discussions. Another possibility is that Apple could produce an ultraexpensive version of the phone that might have lower mass-market appeal, akin to the Mac Pro that was assembled in the U.S. during the first Trump administration.

Analysts have said an American-made iPhone would be difficult to pull off and would likely force the company to significantly increase the cost consumers pay for iPhones.

An Nvidia spokesman declined to comment beyond the company's announcement. Apple didn't respond to a request for comment.

Economists and analysts have said that a wholesale transition back to full-scale manufacturing would be almost impossible to engineer in the U.S., but the Nvidia and Apple announcements show how companies are trying to meet Trump's demands.

As the president and his team continue to negotiate over tariffs around the world, investors should expect more company announcements.

As with similar announcements during Trump's first administration, the companies haven't said what volume of products or capacity they ultimately plan to reach. In 2019, Trump and Cook toured a facility in Austin where workers assembled Mac Pro computers. The site had been in operation since 2013. Trump touted it at the time as "the beginning of a very powerful, important plant."

Trump was quick to claim victory after Nvidia's announcement Monday.

"They're coming here in the biggest way, with hundreds of billions of dollars, not like millions of dollars, hundreds of billions of dollars and I'm honored by it," he said Monday in the Oval Office. "The higher the tariff, the faster they come," he said of manufacturers and companies.

The comments followed a topsy-turvy weekend that started with the late-night release of tariff exemptions for electronics including the iPhone and laptops and ended with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick saying the exemptions weren't permanent. He said tech products would soon be subject to sector-specific tariffs along with semiconductors.

In 2019, Trump also repeatedly said he wouldn't exempt Apple products from tariffs before ultimately doing so.

Much of U.S. corporations' trade diplomacy has taken place in meetings between CEOs and the president. Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang attended an April 4 dinner in Mar-a-Lago, according to people familiar with the meeting. Cook has called Trump directly to make his case, a practice the president referenced in his Monday comments.

The president has also signaled he's open to compromise.

"Sometimes you have to go around it, under it or above it. There'll be maybe things coming up," Trump said in Washington on Monday. "I don't want to hurt anybody. But the end result is we're going to get to the position of greatness for our country."

Nvidia hasn't disclosed how much AI gear it will ultimately make in the U.S., but it said facilities in Texas, all of which would be new, are expected to increase production in 12 to 15 months. The company said it was producing its most advanced AI chips at a Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing plant in Arizona.

Nvidia has been looking at building up U.S. chip manufacturing for years. In 2022, Huang appeared at an event in Arizona with President Joe Biden and TSMC founder Morris Chang as TSMC announced plans to triple its investment in a chip-making facility there. Huang called it a "masterstroke and a game-changing development for the industry."

Apple, Advanced Micro Devices and Nvidia were all expected to have some of the chip capacity produced in the TSMC facilities, analysts have said.

At the beginning of Biden's presidency, Apple announced that it planned to make $430 billion in U.S. investments over five years. That topped off an announced $350 billion five-year U.S. spending plan from 2018.

Write to Bradley Olson at bradley.olson@wsj.com and Rolfe Winkler at Rolfe.Winkler@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 14, 2025 19:14 ET (23:14 GMT)

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