Trump Administration Weighs New Chip Tariffs That Could Hit Gaming Consoles, Laptops and Servers
The Trump administration is weighing a fresh round of tariffs on imported semiconductors, and this time the net could pull in gaming consoles, laptops and data-centre servers alongside the chips themselves.
Politico first reported the deliberations on August 27, 2026, and CNBC and Reuters independently confirmed the same day that the proposed levies would cover an expanded range of tech products made alongside microchips — including gaming consoles. Commerce Department officials have yet to settle on a precise tariff rate or other key details, according to Politico.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is the driving force. His favoured system would let a set volume of chips enter the US duty-free, with the size of that allowance tied to how much a company pledges to manufacture on American soil. The goal, as officials have framed it in private talks, is to pressure foreign chipmakers into building plants inside the US in exchange for tax relief. One idea under consideration would set separate tariff rates and quotas for individual countries, with country-specific guidance covering their major semiconductor manufacturers.
For anyone who plays games, the stakes are familiar. Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft have all previously raised console prices during earlier rounds of Trump tariffs — without directly attributing the hikes to the levies. The US Supreme Court later declared those tariffs unlawful, triggering refunds for Sony and Nintendo. Panic, the maker of the PlayDate handheld, went further: it announced it would refund anyone who bought the device at its tariff-inflated price.
This would not be the administration's first semiconductor tariff. On January 14, 2026, it imposed a 25% tariff on imports of some advanced AI computing chips, aimed at boosting domestic production. That levy excluded chips used in US data centres, startups and consumer applications. The new round under discussion would go broader — taxing finished electronics, not just the silicon inside them.
Tech lobbyists and economists warn the tariffs would raise the cost of imported chips used to make servers, computers, televisions and other electronics, and would hit US chip designers such as Nvidia and AMD that rely on overseas manufacturers. Economists also caution that American companies like Apple could struggle to compete against foreign rivals able to buy the same chips without paying the US tariff, and that allied chip suppliers might seek more business in China to make up for lost American sales.
Some administration officials see a deeper urgency. Trade hawks fear that US dependence on Taiwanese chips poses a grave national security threat should China invade the island. Michael Sobolik, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former aide to Senator Ted Cruz, told Politico that de-risking supply chains is one of the central geopolitical questions of the era — and that building chips at scale in the US would be very expensive.
Sujai Shivakumar, an economist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, offered a caution rooted in the industry's realities: building up domestic chip production takes far more than making imports expensive. Tech companies have separately warned that broad tariffs could backfire and hurt US efforts to win the artificial-intelligence race.
If approved, the tariffs would be implemented slowly rather than imposed overnight. But the direction of travel is clear: the administration wants fewer foreign-made chips entering the US, and it is willing to tax the devices they power — consoles included — to get there.
