US President Donald Trump announced on Thursday that the United States will soon impose “relatively large” tariffs on its imports of semiconductors, a key component in the global race for leadership in artificial intelligence.

On the sidelines of a dinner held at the White House in honor of several top US tech company CEOs, Trump said, “We will impose tariffs very soon. They won’t be very large but they will be relatively large.”

A month earlier, the Republican president declared his intention to impose a 100% tax on imported “chips and semiconductors,” without specifying when he planned to do so.

On Thursday evening, Trump said, “The good news for companies like Apple is that if you build (factories) in the United States or commit to doing so, you won’t have to pay.”

In recent months, many major tech companies, whether semiconductor manufacturers or dependent on them, have announced investments in the United States. Among these are Apple, which promised to invest $600 billion over four years, and Micron Technology, which plans to increase its investments to $200 billion.

The semiconductor sector is witnessing intense competition between the United States and major producing countries such as China and Taiwan.

Washington specifically withdrew permission granted to Taiwanese giant TSMC to export US equipment for chip manufacturing to China without a license.

Also, the giant company Nvidia was unable to sell any of its H20 chips in the Chinese market in the second quarter, despite the chip being developed specifically to meet US government requirements.

Trump has made developing manufacturing industries on American soil a cornerstone of his policy, imposing comprehensive tariffs to reduce imports and encourage local production.