The AI boom just did what tariffs couldn't — push Taiwan past China as America's top supplier. In a historic shift, U.S. imports from Taiwan surged to $24.7 billion in December, more than doubling from a year ago.
Taiwan overtook China, with exports to the U.S. having plunged 44% to $21.1 billion, according to U.S. Department of Commerce data via a Bloomberg article.
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AI Punches Through Trump's Tariff Wall
The reason is simple: artificial intelligence hardware.
According to Bloomberg's Brendan Murray, the Donald Trump tariff system has critical exemptions, noting that "computer equipment, chips, and things that are fueling the AI boom coming from countries like Taiwan" are still flowing freely into the U.S.
In other words, the AI supply chain is effectively operating above the trade war.
Trade War Didn't Stop Imports — It Redirected Them
Rather than reducing reliance on foreign manufacturing, tariffs have rerouted it. Murray explained bluntly: "President Trump's tariffs are shifting trade flows rather than shutting them off."
China's decline hasn't eliminated demand — it's shifted it toward nations dominating semiconductor production.
Taiwan sits at the center of that shift, supplying the chips and computing infrastructure powering AI data centers, cloud expansion and machine learning systems.
The trade shift is also a direct tailwind for AI-linked semiconductor stocks. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd (NYSE:TSM) manufactures the advanced chips powering NVIDIA Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA), Advanced Micro Devices Inc (NASDAQ:AMD) and Broadcom Inc (NASDAQ:AVGO), making Taiwan's supply chain indispensable to the AI boom.
ETFs such as the iShares Semiconductor ETF (NASDAQ:SOXX) and VanEck Semiconductor ETF (NASDAQ:SMH), which track the broader semiconductor sector, are increasingly becoming proxies for this accelerating AI infrastructure trade.
Taiwan Emerges As The Backbone Of The AI Economy
This isn't just a trade anomaly — it's a structural transfer of technological power.
As Murray noted, the latest report exposed "holes in the tariff wall around the U.S. economy," revealing exactly which sectors remain untouchable. AI hardware tops that list.
The implication is massive. The AI arms race isn't just boosting tech stocks — it's reshaping global trade itself.
Taiwan hasn't just gained market share. It has quietly become the critical artery feeding America's AI revolution.
Photo: Shutterstock
