Trump Administration Slaps Licenses for Nvidia's H20 💥, Intel, AMD on China related Chips

TSMC Earnings Beat

The semiconductor industry has been under pressure with trade war uncertainty and supply-chain chaos. It’s April 17th, let’s catch up on the last three weeks of Semiconductor AI chips news.

Top Wall Street Analysts (Jefferies, Bernstein, Raymond James) on NVIDIA H20 Ban: "Banning the H20 makes little sense to us.” These licenses however might as well be bans. They also apply to certain AMD and Intel products.

TSMC Earnings

TSMC 1st Quarter 2025 Earnings

• Revenue NT$839.25 billion (US$25.526 B)

• Gross Margin 58.8% vs guide 57.0% - 59.0%

• Year-over-year, first quarter revenue increased 41.6%, while net income and diluted EPS increased 60.3% and 60.4% respectively.

• The company faces headwinds from the trade policy of U.S. President Donald Trump, who has placed broad trade tariffs on Taiwan and stricter export controls on TSMC clients Nvidia and AMD. Yet Trump is asking them to build even more in the U.S.

• Meanwhile, the company said advanced technologies, defined as 7-nanometer and less, accounted for 73% of total wafer revenue.

US Launches a Semiconductor Probe Into Feasibility Of Domestic Chip Production

The US Commerce Department is now scrutinizing semiconductor imports, evaluating the potential in the domestic chip industry, and enforcing export controls. This probe, which began on April 1, 2025, is being conducted under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, which allows the President to enact tariffs for national security reasons.

The China trade tariffs are putting extreme pressure on semiconductor supply-chain orders and guidance. [e.g. ASML orders down]