US President Donald Trump and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick criticised Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company for taking “advantage” of America, as they joined its CEO to announce US$100 billion in stateside investments on Monday.
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“Today, Taiwan Semiconductor is announcing that they will be investing at least US$100 billion in new capital in the United States over the next short period of time to build state-of-the-art semiconductor manufacturing facilities,” Trump said.
Hailing the investment as a “tremendous move by the most powerful company in the world”, the US leader said “the most powerful AI chips in the world will be made right here in America and it’ll be a big percentage” of the semiconductors made by TSMC.
The news came as Trump prepares to impose additional tariffs on America’s trading partners. On Monday, he addressed his strategy of wielding the threat of tariffs to pressure countries and companies to invest in the US.
“Look, the United States has been taken advantage of for 40 years. The United States has been a laughingstock for years and years. That’s why this gentleman has built in Taiwan instead of building here. Would have been better if he built here,” Trump said, pointing at TSMC CEO C.C. Wei.
The president believed the heads of leading tech companies “probably” do not like him “at all”, but they were investing in the US because he had made it “very costly for people to take advantage of this country”.