This second round of levies may be directly tied to facility investment, coming at a time when the Korean firms are scaling up at home.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick listens as U.S. President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office of the White House on Aug. 31 in Washington.
AP/YONHAP

Pressure on Samsung Electronics and SK hynix to build more factories in the United States is intensifying as a fresh tariff proposal could impose duties not only on chips but also on products containing them, including laptops, gaming consoles and data center servers.

The proposal would mark a second round of levies beyond the one implemented in January, according to a report published by U.S. media outlet Politico on Aug. 27. Whether new imports would be duty-free, and at what volume, would depend on how much each company is expanding investment to build chip manufacturing plants in the country.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick confirmed in a CNBC interview on Thursday that the plan to differentiate tariff rates by investment volume is under review, despite concerns from U.S. tech companies and experts that it would ultimately slow AI development, as those companies would be the ones absorbing the tax.

“What you’re going to see is targeted, thoughtful tariff policy that basically says if you build here, you don’t pay, but if you don’t build here, expect to pay to enter the greatest market in the world,” Lutnick said, emphasizing that a combined $1.2 trillion has been committed to building chip plants in the country since the Donald Trump administration took office.

This includes investments by the two Korean companies. Samsung currently operates two factories in Austin, Texas, and is finishing construction on a new fab in Taylor scheduled to open this year. The chipmaker pledged to allocate $37 billion in December 2024, which includes two new facilities in Taylor. SK hynix, for its part, recently broke ground on a $3.87 billion chip packaging plant in Indiana.

The same report said tech industry representatives and lobbyists have met with senior U.S. officials in an attempt to dissuade them, arguing that the tariffs would only slow the data center expansion needed to power AI, as it becomes harder to acquire chip volumes already in short supply amid the industry’s AI infrastructure spending spree.

The Trump administration has been focused specifically on memory fab expansion, as memory chips are critical components of the advanced AI accelerators made by U.S. big tech companies. Washington is pushing for the front end of memory production — specifically dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) and NAND flash memory wafer fabrication — to be done in the United States, where the real margin and technical know-how reside.

Samsung’s office building at its Taylor, Texas, chip cluster
TAYLOR CITY

Lutnick has pressured foreign chip manufacturers multiple times this year to build memory plants or face tariffs, with the latest turn coming July 9 — a day before SK hynix’s Nasdaq debut via American depositary receipts — at a concrete-pouring ceremony at Micron’s fab site in New York.

Multiple reports in the United States and Korea have said his comment was pointed at the Korean companies. It came 10 days after the two chipmakers announced a combined 800 trillion won ($590 billion) investment to form a chip cluster in Korea’s southwestern region.

“Lutnick’s comments back in July had a bite,” said a source from the chip industry who wished to remain anonymous, citing the sensitivity of the matter. “Other than the hundreds of trillions of won being invested in Korea, it is believed that he also saw SK hynix’s ADR listing as using U.S. dollars to strengthen chip manufacturing capability in Korea.”

SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won said in a Bloomberg Television interview following the listing that he is eyeing further investment in the United States that will be “much, much, much bigger” than the cumulative $35 billion SK Group has already spent there, which includes its energy sector operations.

Domestic reports last month said SK hynix’s U.S. subsidiary, Solidigm, is pursuing a Nasdaq listing, though the company responded with a regulatory filing stating that no decision has been made.

Samsung and SK hynix spokespeople both said they are “carefully monitoring” the situation.

Another industry source requesting anonymity echoed U.S. tech representatives’ claim that ultimately the second wave of tariffs would be much more burdensome to U.S. industry.

SK hynix workers look around the construction site of the company’s Indiana fab.
YONHAP

“Even Micron has more factories abroad than in the United States,” the source pointed out. “There’s a reason why manufacturers are hesitating to expand into the United States — it’s simply too expensive to make something there with the high labor costs, lack of skilled workers and immature ecosystem, when building chip plants is already costly and takes a long time.”

The first round of tariffs, implemented in January, applied only to a narrow set of advanced AI accelerator chips that left the global chip supply chain largely unaffected. The January duties also exempted data centers, research and development, startups, repairs and industrial applications. That exemption may not survive under the second round, according to the Politico report, although the discussions on the framework remain in the early stages.

BY LEE JAE-LIM [lee.jaelim@joongang.co.kr]