TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — US President Donald Trump’s 32% tariffs on Taiwanese goods are changing the game for the country’s electronics manufacturers, CNA reported Thursday.
Chiu Shih-fang (邱昰芳), an analyst at the Taiwan Industry Economics Services under the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research, said the scale of the impact has surpassed market expectations. He added that the core aim of this policy is to promote “Made in America,” forcing businesses to shift production back to the US.
Chiu said major Taiwanese electronics contract manufacturers, including Foxconn, Quanta, and Pegatron, must accelerate plans for AI server assembly in the US—a strategy many have already begun. Due to high demand from US cloud service providers like Amazon AWS and Google Cloud, final assembly of AI servers is expected to be among the first operations to relocate to the US.
“Contract manufacturers without US factories will face greater pressure and anxiety,” according to an industry insider quoted by CNA.
In response to geopolitical factors, production diversification strategies have been in place for at least six years.
In the laptop industry, manufacturers noted that production remains concentrated in China. Low profit margins reduce incentives to relocate, though due to the US-China trade war, part of the PC industry’s production has shifted to Mexico and Vietnam.
Chiu emphasized that phone and laptop supply chains are highly complex and remain rooted in Asia. Even if final assembly moves to the US, tariffs on components will raise costs, further discouraging relocation.
However, companies will still assess the costs and customer structure. Chips, which account for the highest proportion of total device costs, are not currently subject to the tariffs.
HP has said that by October next year, less than 10% of its North American sales will originate from China, per DigiTimes. Dell’s final assembly is largely based in Southeast Asia, while Quanta still assembles a limited number of Macs in the US, with some production shifting to Vietnam.
Regarding phone manufacturing, Chiu said most iPhones are still assembled in China and India. Tariffs on Chinese-made devices are likely to push Foxconn to expand production lines in India.
While India previously handled only lower-end iPhone models, it is now transitioning into a full-range manufacturing base. Without this shift, iPhone prices could rise significantly, Chiu warned.
