r/wallstreetbets • u/MikeMikeGaming AI bubble survivor • Jan 28 '25

News Trump To Tariff Chips Made In Taiwan, Targeting TSMC

https://au.pcmag.com/computers-electronics/109466/trump-to-tariff-chips-made-in-taiwan-targeting-tsmc

Why don't we kick Nvidia while it's down am I rite?

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2.4k

u/ChamberofSarcasm Jan 28 '25 edited Jan 28 '25

While also shutting down the Chips act. Smart. Tank everything and buy it up. Cool. Great.

Edit: the admin may keep the Chips act going. During his campaign he (and Speaker Johnson) talked aboutreversing the CHIPs act.

760

u/Critical-General-659 Jan 28 '25

There won't be anything worth buying. What will they do? Buy all the property nobody can afford? But the companies selling products nobody can afford? 

If you ruin America's trade partnerships and alliances, we're like a big Brazil. 

392

u/[deleted] Jan 28 '25

Here is the thing about *feeling* rich: it's not about how much you have, it's about how much *more* you have than others.

132

u/onlycommitminified Jan 28 '25

Past a certain point, your money can’t really elevate you anymore. Once the length of your yacht gets into the triple digits, all of it is just abstract and no longer generates additional presence. The only way to get bigger is to make everyone else smaller.

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u/stingraycharles Jan 28 '25

I remember this thread that went viral on some Chinese forum, a decade or so ago. Some guy showed off a bit of money, and everyone started one-up’ing each other, showing off millions of dollars.

The thread ended with someone replying with an official arrest order for OP.

Moral of the story: power is the end goal once you have enough money.

17

u/PerformerOk7669 Jan 28 '25

It really sucks. Most humans don’t have this defect, and yet they suffer at whims of those who do. I wish there was just something in place that disallowed power hungry folks from ever attaining power.

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u/[deleted] Jan 28 '25

They’re voted in by hordes of people “without” the defect

2

u/BigDaddyZuccc Jan 28 '25

Well that's the fun part. By grinding and mangling our psyches from a young age, those with the defect are left with the perfect vessels to cram sympathy for themselves into. They'll fight their peers for them, spread their ideologies like plagues, and obviously put them in power every chance they get.

1

u/Rico_Rebelde Jan 29 '25

Thats actually not true, most humans do have this flaw in our nature to some degree. That's why scapegoating minorities and poor people is so effective at distracting from material issues that actually effect people.

2

u/JuanJeanJohn Jan 28 '25

Yes, these people are just actual psychopaths. They genuinely do not care about burning it all down as long as they come out as the few on top (and in their minds, the fewer the better). They are competitive to an unhealthy degree and had a desire for power and control at psychotic levels. Truly outright villains we are just handing the country to.

1

u/QuantTrader_qa2 Jan 28 '25

At that point its very much about power and money is just an expression of that.

1

u/Prepared_Noob Jan 28 '25

That’s what you think

1

u/onlycommitminified Jan 28 '25

Incredible deduction, how did you work it out?

-3

u/SuperWaluigi77 Jan 28 '25

Sure sure. If there's one thing I have learned about the ultra-rich, it's that they all just quit trying to make more money, because it stops "elevating" them.

1

u/Lazy_Ad3222 Jan 28 '25

You think all people are the same because of how much money they have.

Therefore, you are admitting that you’d become just like them with the amount of money they have.

It’s pretty shallow and I don’t think it’s true at all.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 28 '25

https://insights.som.yale.edu/insights/key-factor-in-well-being-others-apparent-wealth

Its actually a well know psychological phenomenon, and a big reason social media is correlated with depression.

1

u/staticfive Jan 28 '25

I have a feeling they're creating a situation where they won't have enough about what actually matters very, very soon.

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u/MBCnerdcore Jan 28 '25

not "Nobody", wealthy international investors. Chinese and Indian millionaires will own all the property in the USA.

3

u/Critical-General-659 Jan 28 '25

Who's gonna make their investments worth it? Will they convert them to tenements? Nobody will be able to afford to rent or buy without a job. 

If AI takes over a majority of all the "meetings and emails" jobs, who pays for this shit? 

2

u/rocketseeker Jan 28 '25

Except you have a crushing military force, Brazil has some stuff but not nearly what the U.S. has 

2

u/Neuchacho Jan 28 '25 edited Jan 29 '25

The crushing military force has a diminished benefit when it's chiefed by an idiot who seems to actively want to send the US into decline on purpose.

Post Trump, though? I'd be legit worried in a depressed economy that people would vote in someone that has a real hard-on and the actual intelligence to utilize the US military in some scary ways. The hop from "trade war" to "hot war" isn't really that far, especially for people who probably view human lives as simple balance sheet inputs.

1

u/gcstr Jan 28 '25

As a Brazilian, I'm offended. But I agree :(

1

u/Stipes_Blue_Makeup Jan 28 '25

But with no coffee.

1

u/GarnetandBlack Jan 28 '25

The goal isn't strictly money, it's control and power too.

His whole "Russia sees us as weak" isn't about America as a whole. The "us" in that quote are the rich. It's about how much more control those in power have there than here.

1

u/Attheveryend Jan 28 '25

They said Littlefinger would burn Westeros to the ground if he could be king of the ashes.

1

u/EuropeanPepe Jan 28 '25

you will not be buying products from companies nobody can afford but
with techobro supper powers you will subscribe to "be temporary lender" of a product you can finally lend temporarily!

Coming soon steel brush dildo subscription only 6.99$

1

u/rockstar504 Jan 28 '25

Buy all the property nobody can afford?

I can't tell if you're serious.. but absolutely. They can rent it out forever and if they don't like the property taxes they'll change the laws to benefit themselves

They'll rebuild areas devastated by wildfires and rape the people who were fucked by those same very people not believing in climate change

1

u/NkdUndrWtrBsktWeevr Jan 28 '25

Just wait till he pisses off enough people and they band together to remove the USD from being the defacto currency in oil purchases.

1

u/Efficient_Bother_162 Jan 28 '25

Lol you're Brazil without healthcare already

1

u/CBalsagna Jan 28 '25

You remember when we used to work, and then got our housing and groceries from the same place? He wants to go back to that. We won't need to own anything; him and his buddies will own it all and allow us the pleasure of living and working for such great men.

1

u/Redwolfdc Jan 28 '25

The man is unhinged. These decisions aren’t like him and economic advisors developing a trade strategy that benefits the US. It’s Trump just randomly deciding this shit without any thought of the outcome then yes men he’s surrounded by going along with it. 

1

u/Clockwork_Medic Jan 28 '25

Russian oligarchs were able to buy up the country’s assets for relative pennies on the dollar when the USSR collapsed. A handful of already well-off people became even more rich and powerful, while millions of others starved

300

u/Maximum_Nectarine312 Jan 28 '25

I have no idea why the markets were happy that Trump was elected. He's a loose canon.

158

u/StrongVegetable1100 Jan 28 '25

You really don’t know why? Did you see who was sitting in the front row at Trumps inauguration?

76

u/Throwaway-tan Jan 28 '25

It still feels like he's fucking those tech bros with this dumb shit though.

26

u/fourbutthick Jan 28 '25

Yeah but the tax cuts will net them billions of dollars. Trump can probably only do millions and millions of damage. We’ll see how wrong or right they are, they are supposed to be geniuses.

5

u/Jaredismyname Jan 28 '25

With the way these tariffs are going he's going to do a hell of a lot more than millions of damage

36

u/[deleted] Jan 28 '25

The problem is tech bros are just as fucking stupid as the rest of the median voters. I actually think a lot of them buy into it for the same reason poor people do, “he’s definitely agreeing with me, and lying about everything I disagree with him about”. This is basically the argument his voters I know give.

8

u/Bubbly-Desk-4479 Jan 28 '25

He will play both sides of the coin until he is forced to pick one

4

u/domrepp Jan 28 '25

Naw they just need to kiss the ring and pay their dues.

1

u/sooodooo Jan 28 '25

Nope, he helps them keep the competition down. It’s about timing and insider knowledge, if you can’t go faster make sure others run slower.

He can also make exceptions tailored for his buddies.

1

u/DrSpacecasePhD Jan 28 '25

They will have their falling out in due time. People lasted about a year last time, and Pence who had to stick around was threatened with lynching on Jan 6th. I'll be shocked if Musk isn't already unhappy about being shuttled off to an office outside the White House.

1

u/Impressive-Potato Jan 29 '25

It's about the power they have now by being up his butt

5

u/JohnAtticus Jan 28 '25

Did you see who was sitting in the front row at Trumps inauguration?

Yeah, all of the tech CEOs whose businesses are going to get destroyed by a semi-conducter tariff.

I think OP's question still stands.

Just WTF were these clowns thinking?

Was it hubris to think their support would insulate them from whatever bullshit idea pops into Trump's head?

1

u/DrSpacecasePhD Jan 28 '25

Was it hubris to think their support would insulate them from whatever bullshit idea pops into Trump's head?

Narrator's voice: "It was."

1

u/popeofdiscord Jan 28 '25

The market is big

1

u/caishaurianne Jan 28 '25

I think he put them in the front row so that they would have trouble distancing themselves from him once things start going down.

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u/SnooCupcakes9188 Jan 28 '25 edited Jan 28 '25

In general I’ve always agreed. I had friends and family on Bay Street so happy about it, as well as American friends.  I don’t wanna say they were wrong but I work for a very large international company and our view was dead opposite.  Simply put Trump is bad for business. 

That said when you look at the market makers they are more likely to have first mover options and insight to these changes first.  From their perspective money doesn’t leave the market it just moves, so if they get the chance to move the money to the right places first they win big.  This is why I think Wall Street always wants a regime change.  

11

u/Fragrant_Land7159 Jan 28 '25

Fuck I've never seen it put so neatly. Fuck.

9

u/[deleted] Jan 28 '25

[deleted]

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u/whatevers_clever Jan 28 '25

The markets were not happy trump was elected. They didn't care who won.

Institutions/funds/whatever were holding large amounts of cash in preparation for how the election would go.

Whoever won, the same thing was going to happen in the market - the only difference was dependent on who won and that would decide Where the money would go.

But with 4 more years of turmp you're now going to see the same thing that happened last time - markets will move nonstop based off of idiotic things he does every day and things he tweets/sends on truth social. Trading firms will probably be happy about this because there's going to be insane volatility just like last time, and volatility is what makes them money.

3

u/zeromussc Jan 28 '25

They were happy because he promised deregulation and that's what they focused on. They probably thought tariffs was a blowhard negotiation tactic type thing.

But now that he's tossing around the term like crazy and creating chaos, the market is likely going to wake up to this.

Or alternative theory:

The algorithms don't care and don't know about the signals. They just see dollars in and dollars out, and theres a giant blind spot that might cause harm later.

2

u/rook119 Jan 28 '25

when the stonk market has peaked, loot the treasury.

1

u/Ambitious_Air5776 Jan 28 '25

Go bring up the SPY chart and zoom out to the last 6 months. There's no real spike. The markets didn't really care, his supporters just said they did.

Personally I'm surprised at the lack of activity, really.

1

u/charutobarato Jan 28 '25

They believe he will do literally anything, including destroying everything else in the country, to lower interest rates and pump the market

1

u/Akandoji Jan 28 '25

Volatility my friend, volatility. Trump getting elected just means there's a lot more opportunity for the big players to shaft the little ones.

-3

u/Rich265 Jan 28 '25

Yeah, everyone's happy for some reason. Almost like democracy. But I guess the miserable minority should dictate to people. Why you hate democracy and the will of the people so much? Do you know better or something? He's not a loose canon, he's actually the elected representative of the people. In fact, it's the only office that's chosen by all of the people.

4

u/Maximum_Nectarine312 Jan 28 '25

"He's been elected, therefore he is completely infallible and beyond criticism."

Surely you spoke the same about Biden right?

35

u/[deleted] Jan 28 '25

Damn it's almost like he's been paid by hostile foreign powers to dismantle the United States or something huh

-9

u/jorel43 Jan 28 '25

If you look at both Trump and Biden admins, it looks like that.

9

u/blorgenheim Jan 28 '25

Pretty sure they dished out what remained in that funding and that act was actually quite successful there is TSMC plant in Arizona, Micron in Idaho.

29

u/bigshotdontlookee Jan 28 '25

There are more than 100 new chip factory buildings nationwide.

Not just the tier 1 fabs, smaller companies too.

Seriously more than 100B worth of construction.

You could not elect a more incompetent leadership to try to blow up one of the best "pro USA manufacturing" pieces of legislation in recent years.

5

u/WestCoastBestCoast01 Jan 28 '25

The voters wanted coal mines, not fancy tech jobs

-11

u/jorel43 Jan 28 '25

The chips act hasn't done anything, it was just a grift piece of legislation.

3

u/MasterReflex Jan 28 '25

i’m working at a job site right now responsible for 10,000 jobs because of that act lol

1

u/WinderTP Jan 28 '25

Yeah but the Arizona plant is gonna be at least a generation behind Taiwan in manufacturing tech for the foreseeable future, meaning if it is going to bring any benefit, it will likely come during the administration after this one. This is basically gonna shoot up the cost of AI development locally for the next few years

2

u/ChamberofSarcasm Jan 28 '25

We could use less AI, imo.

1

u/HappyAshi Jan 28 '25

The AZ plant already is outperforming and outproducing the Taiwan one. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-10-24/tsmc-s-arizona-chip-production-yields-surpass-taiwan-s-a-win-for-us-push

1

u/WinderTP Jan 28 '25

Yeah but it's only outperforming in quantity (and only 4%) and doesn't negate what I originally said about its products being a generation behind. You're not gonna convince AI companies to stop using the latest generation of GPUs for their training unless they're forced to.

4

u/Ronaldo_Frumpalini Jan 28 '25

We just have to figure out who's praising him hardest in private right before he inevitably hates them. Like a baby eating a "planeful" of peas.

3

u/[deleted] Jan 28 '25

Wait he did? You have a link? I think I missed that

6

u/xtravar Jan 28 '25

On the tail of the dip today, it does seem like intentionally manufacturing depressed prices. Either to buy up or to piss off Pelosi.

2

u/ChamberofSarcasm Jan 28 '25

He’s working towards something larger than Pelosi’s calls.

2

u/Defiant-Plantain1873 Jan 28 '25

Don’t you see, it’s a genius strategy to place China as the number one chip manufacturer.

Tariffs on Taiwan, mean no defending Taiwan. China land invasion. All TSMC fabs self destruct. No more TSMC. China gets Taiwan, doesn’t have to worry about US throwing a fit. China takes Taiwanese fab workers, problem solved.

Now the US doesn’t benefit from this in anyway, if anything it gets much worse for them. However, you must consider that Trump really doesn’ care.

1

u/TheGongShow61 Jan 28 '25

Where does it say Trump repealed the chips act?

1

u/ChamberofSarcasm Jan 28 '25

Forgive me: on his campaign, him and Soeaker Johnson said they’d repeal it. Now it looks like they’ll keep it going (unless it falls under the federal grants thing which we’re all just paused to verify that they align with the King’s agenda).

-2

u/macaronysalad Jan 28 '25

He's gambling and it's dangerous. But he's not wrong in his opinion. Why should we give multi billionaire corporations 50+ billion dollar tax handouts to build factories in the U.S. when they already have facilities in the U.S. and billions of dollars but moved the chip manufacturing to a foreign country? We bitch about handouts to corporations and this attempts to address that. Of course he probably has another not-so-good motive, but on the surface, the reasoning has merit but needs a better plan instead of a concept.

2

u/ChamberofSarcasm Jan 28 '25

The facilities we have here aren’t capable of making the chips we need.

However, I agree that it would be nice if companies paid for their own crap without subsidies (looking at you, defense and oil industries).

But this gamble might be short-sighted bc we can’t currently make the kinds of chips we buy.