President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he told the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, which has pledged to build new factories in the United States, it would pay a tax of up to 100% if it didn't build its plants in the country.
Speaking at a Republican National Congressional Committee event, Trump criticized former president Joe Biden's administration for providing a $6.6 billion grant to TSMC's U.S. unit for semiconductor production in Phoenix, Arizona, saying semiconductor companies don't need the money.
"TSMC, I gave them no money ... all I did was say, if you don't build your plant here, you're going to pay a big tax," Trump said.
In March, TSMC, the world's biggest contract chipmaker, said at the White House that it plans to make a fresh $100 billion investment in the U.S. that includes building five additional chip facilities in coming years.
Earlier on Tuesday, Reuters reported the chipmaker could face a penalty of $1 billion or more to settle a U.S. export control investigation over a chip it made that ended up inside a Huawei AI processor.
