GPU Tariff Exemption Expires December 31, Could Spell Higher Graphics Card Prices

Prices of the best graphics cards may get higher in early 2023 in the U.S. as the exemption on tariffs imposed several years ago by the Trump administration will expire on December 31. The Office of the United States Trade Representative may renew the exclusion, or graphics card manufacturers could try to find a way to work around the high tariffs. Twitter post. “Anyone smarter than me (that is not saying much) know how to look that up and get some linkage? If so, December might be a better time to buy.” looks like the import tariffs in question are not new, as one of Kyle’s readers pointed out . These 25% tariffs were imposed by the Trump administration several years ago to essentially penalize China-based hardware manufacturers — which included not only graphics cards, but also laptops, motherboards, and other devices. The Trump administration then agreed to temporarily lift the tariffs and then the Biden administration granted 352 exclusions to the tariff rules. These exclusions are set to expire on December 31, 2022. graphics card prices have every reason to increase compared to 2019, even without the tariffs. The development of GPUs made using TSMC’s N5 and 4N (5nm-class) fabrication technologies is extremely expensive, and a physical implementation of a GPU (with software) costs north of $500 million. Manufacturing on one of TSMC’s N5 production nodes is also costlier (potentially twice as expensive) as making GPUs on TSMC’s N7 or Samsung’s 8LPP. Production costs are also higher now than they were several years ago due to rising salaries in China and inflation. Finally, even transportation is now more expensive than it used to be in 2019.