(April 9): President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he told the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), which has pledged to build new factories in the US, it would pay a tax of up to 100% if it did not build its plants in the country.
Speaking at a Republican National Congressional Committee event, Trump criticised former president Joe Biden's administration for providing a US$6.6 billion (RM29.7 billion) grant to TSMC's US unit for semiconductor production in Phoenix, Arizona, saying semiconductor companies do not 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.
TSMC declined to comment.
In March, TSMC, the world's biggest contract chipmaker, said at the White House that it plans to make a fresh US$100 billion investment in the US that includes building five additional chip facilities in coming years.
Earlier on Tuesday, Reuters reported the chipmaker could face a penalty of US$1 billion or more to settle a US export control investigation over a chip it made that ended up inside a Huawei Technologies AI processor.
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