Tech is losing the global trade war

Apple relies on factories in China

(Image credit: VCG / VCG via Getty Images)

published 15 April 2025

Big Tech is a big loser in a global trade war, said Julia Shapero in The Hill. Last week's stock market rout was especially hard on companies like Apple, Dell, and HP that "depend extensively on manufacturing and supply chains that run through China and Taiwan." Apple certainly knew it wasn't going to dodge any trade war unscathed, "given that most of its products are produced in China." But even efforts to diversify away from China in recent years didn't save it after steep tariffs were also placed Vietnam (46 percent) and India (26 percent). It will be difficult for Apple and other companies not to pass the costs on to consumers. Wall Street analysts, for instance, have calculated that all the tariffs planned for computer equipment will raise the $799 price of the cheapest iPhone 16 model to over $1,140.

Tech companies that hardly import anything are also getting battered, said Mike Isaac in The New York Times. Tech giants like Meta and Google that rely on digital advertising collect billions from "small and medium-size businesses" from around the world that are likely to "spend less on advertising" in the United States. Meta is particularly vulnerable. Roughly "10 percent of its revenue in 2023 was from Chinese companies spending heavily on advertising." Temu and Shein, Chinese e-commerce platforms, are expected to practically disappear after Trump closed the trade loophole that allowed them to sell cheap products in the U.S. Tariffs will even "boost costs for businesses building the infrastructure to deliver artificial intelligence," said Isabelle Bousquette in The Wall Street Journal. Trump exempted semiconductors from tariffs for now. But everything from the price of steel used to build data centers to the wiring inside of them is under the threat of taxation.

Tech lobbyists are still hoping that tariffs bring Europe to the negotiating table, said Brendan Bordelon and Gabby Miller in Politico. Silicon Valley has for years "been complaining about foreign regulations on their platforms—taxes, fines, and restrictions that the U.S. doesn't impose." One of their biggest hopes was that Trump's tariffs would finally make European countries back down. They still might. But for now, the EU is suggesting it may "double down," hitting U.S. tech companies even harder in a counterstrike that can easily snowball into a tech cold war.