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President Trump’s 25% tariff on aluminum sparks concerns over rising PC enclosure and GPU costs
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PCMag reports citing Consumer Technology Association (CTA) that Executive Order 14257 excludes imports of goods covered by the latest U.S. import rules concerning aluminum, which describes aluminum and derivative aluminum products as subject to increased 25% tariffs.
Unfortunately, the appropriate document does not list codes 8473.30.1180 and 84733011, which describe graphics cards and GPU accelerators (such as H100, B200, etc.). Instead, it lists 8473.30.2000 (steel brackets from China, Taiwan or Singapore) and 8473.30.5100 (parts and accessories of the machines of heading 8471, which are PC parts spanning from keyboards to HDD to optical storage, though it looks like importers use the code to import chassis), so indeed we can only guess that PC chassis are now subject to a 25% import duty.
However, the situation regarding graphics cards and motherboards is not clear. Technically, graphics cards, GPU modules, and motherboards produced in Taiwan are now subject to a 10% import duty in the U.S..
Now, graphics processing units can be considered ‘processors’ and imported to the U.S. without tariffs, then soldered to an appropriate printed circuit board here to build a graphics card. In fact, that circuit board can be shipped from elsewhere and fall under the ‘unfinished logic board’ category. Something similar can be done with motherboards as processors, controllers (technically, chipsets are controllers), and amplifiers are not yet slapped with tariffs.
Hence, in theory the makers of graphics cards, GPU modules, motherboards, and similar devices can ship actual GPUs and processors/chipsets to the U.S. without paying import duties (for now) along with half-finished logic boards (but paying an import tariff), then assemble actual products in the U.S. This of course is more costly for them than to produce actual goods in China or Taiwan.
For now, graphics card makers and GPU designers haven’t commented on the matter and are waiting for what happens next. Yet, it looks like graphics cards may get more expensive shortly. The question is by how much.
“We are closely monitoring the developments following yesterday’s tariff announcement,” a spokesperson for AMD told us last week. “Although semiconductors are exempt from the reciprocal tariffs, we are assessing the details and any impacts on our broader customer and partner ecosystem. We will provide updates, as needed, as we learn more.”
