President Trump announced late Friday that a range of electronics imported from China will not be hit by his new reciprocal tariffs, according to a US Customs and Border Protection notice. The exemption, which applies to items arriving in the United States or leaving bonded warehouses on or after April 5, covers smartphones, computer monitors, semiconductors, various electronic parts, and, importantly, high-performance GPUs. Tech companies were bracing for big cost increases. Apple, for example, assembles about 90 percent of its iPhones in China and holds roughly six weeks of inventory in US warehouses. Without this exemption, consumers would likely have seen higher prices once that stock ran out. Framework, the modular laptop maker, has already paused US sales of some Laptop 13 models and discounted others by up to 12 percent after a new 10 percent tariff on Taiwanese parts squeezed their margins.

The GPU market got another break thanks to a clever workaround in the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement. A research firm SemiAnalysis pointed out that graphics cards made in Taiwan can still enter the US tariff-free if they undergo final assembly in Mexico or Canada. That loophole applies to digital processing units and related circuit boards, which means companies relying on NVIDIA's top-tier accelerators for AI won't see an immediate price jump. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said these steps are part of a two-pronged plan: offering short-term relief to keep consumer prices down while at the same time pushing major tech firms like Apple, TSMC, and NVIDIA to invest billions in US manufacturing. However, many experts warn that high-precision components are still largely made in Asia, so building up domestic production capacity could take months or even years and may remain more expensive in the meantime.

Update: President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social the following: "There was no Tariff "exception" announced on Friday. These products are subject to the existing 20% Fentanyl Tariffs, and they are just moving to a different Tariff "bucket."We are taking a look at Semiconductors and the WHOLE ELECTRONICS SUPPLY CHAIN in the upcoming National Security Tariff Investigations."