U.S. Imposes 25% Tariff on Imported Semiconductors

Catch up on the top industries and stocks that were impacted, or were predicted to be impacted, by the comments, actions and policies of President Donald Trump with this daily recap compiled by The Fly.TARIFFS:The U.S. is imposing a 25% tariff on imports of certain advanced semiconductors, including the H200 artificial intelligence processors made by Nvidiain Taiwan, Bloomberg's Josh Wingrove. The tariff applies to a narrow category of semiconductors, with an exception for those imported to support the buildout of the US technology supply chain. President Donald Trump has directed officials to pursue negotiations on imports and report back in 90 days, and may announce new tariffs and an offset program to incentivize domestic manufacturing in the near future. "It's not the highest level, but it's a very good level. And China wants them, and other people want them, and we're going to be making 25% of the sale of those chips, basically," Trump told reporters Wednesday during a signing ceremony.CHINA-BOUND SALES:U.S. lawmakers and former officials have questioned President Donald Trump after allowing China-bound sales of Nvidia's H200 chips, the company's second most powerful AI chips, Alexandra Alper of Reuters. Matt Pottinger, who was a senior White House Asia advisor during Trump's first term, said the decision will damage the U.S.'s goal of winning the AI race. Similarly, Congressman Michael McCaul said, "They steal so much intellectual property from this country but we don't have to sell it to them."PURCHASE RULES:China is working to set rules on how many advanced AI chip companies can buy from foreign makers such as Nvidia, Nikkei Asia's Cheng Ting-Fang, Lauly Li, Cissy Zhou, and Yifan Yu. The Chinese central government is working on rules that will likely regulate the total volume of cutting-edge AI chips local companies can purchase, effectively allowing some sales by Nvidia instead of banning them outright, the report says.OIL TANKER SEIZED:U.S. forces boarded a sixth oil tanker near Venezuela, signaling an escalation of the Trump administration's crackdown on the "dark fleet" transporting sanctioned oil, The Wall Street Journal's Shelby Holliday and Costas Paris, citing people familiar with the matter. The action follows the seizure of a fifth tanker and reflects continued efforts to restrict Venezuela's oil sales in coordination with the country's interim government. Publicly traded companies in the oil energy space include BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil, Shelland TotalEnergies. Publicly traded companies in the drillers and oil services space include Baker Hughes, Halliburton, Nabors Industries, Noble Corp., SLB, Transoceanand Weatherford.EXPANDED LICENSE:Chevron is poised to receive an expanded Venezuela license from the U.S. government this week that could allow for increased production and exports, Reuters' Marianna Parraga and Jarrett Renshaw, citing three oil industry sources. Chevron is expected to be one of several firms to get approvals from President Donald Trump's administration to do business in Venezuela as oil companies, traders and refiners look for access to the country's heavy crude after the U.S. capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, sources said.FED CHAIR FIGHT:JPMorganCEO Jamie Dimon has worked carefully to rebuild his relationship with President Donald Trump, but the fight over Federal Chair Jerome Powell is threatening to destroy it again, Alexander Saeedy, AnnaMaria Andriotis, Emily Glazer, and Brian Schwartz of The Wall Street Journal. Dimon had recently tempered his approach with Trump, expressing mostly support with only few, careful criticisms of policy details. These actions appeared to be working as Dimon met with the president several times in recent months. On Tuesday, however, Dimon joined the voices warning the administration to not interfere with the Federal Reserve, stating that while he didn't "agree with everything the Fed has done," almost everyone knew "anything that chips away" at the central bank's independence "is probably not a good idea." Trump quickly responded that Dimon is "wrong" and "it's fine what I'm doing, and we have a bad Fed person."HINT AT INVESTMENT:After a reporter asked President Trump if the government is going to invest more in Intel, Trump, "Well, I don't know about Intel, but I'll invest more in other things. As you know, Intel came to see me; they needed help. And I said I'll help you, but I want 10% of your company to go to the United States of America." Trump also added later, "As soon as we went in, Applewent in, Nvidia went in, a lot of smart people went in - they followed us. So, yeah, we're doing that deal," according to Tom's Hardware, which questions "Did the President make a mistake, or is he alluding to something that the public does not know?" Intel previously disclosed that on December 26, the company completed the issuance and sale of 214,776,632 shares of the company's common stock to Nvidiafor an aggregate purchase price in cash of $5.0B, representing a price per share of $23.28 per share.CYBERWARFARE:The Trump administration is weighing a substantial shift to enlist private companies to assist with offensive cyberattacks, four former senior U.S. officials familiar with the matter told' Adam Sella. The government can currently contract private companies to develop elements of its cyberoperations, but the initiative would drastically expand the role of private companies in cyberwarfare, said the former officials, according to the report. Publicly traded companies in the cybersecurity space include Check Point, CrowdStrike, CyberArk, F5, Fortinet, Gen Digital, Okta, Palo Alto Networksand Qualys.