Tariffs may cost chip equipment producers more than one billion dollars

President Donald Trump’s new tariffs may cost semiconductor equipment manufacturers more than $1 billion a year, according to industry estimates discussed with officials and lawmakers in Washington last week, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

According to the sources, each of the three largest chip equipment makers in the United States–Applied Materials, Lam Research, and KLA–could lose approximately $350 million per year as a result of the tariffs. Smaller competitors, such as Onto Innovation, may potentially face tens of millions of dollars in additional expenditures.

The companies manufacture some of the world’s most desirable chipmaking equipment, which can require thousands of specialized parts.

Chip equipment makers have already lost billions of dollars in income since former US President Joe Biden issued a series of export curbs to limit the sale of advanced semiconductor manufacturing equipment to Chinese organizations.

The Trump administration has largely postponed the reciprocal tariffs it proposed in April. To encourage U.S. manufacturing, the government is considering slapping more tariffs on the semiconductor industry and opened a probe into its imports on Monday.