3 Companies That Will Profit From Trump's Semiconductor Tariffs

Key Points

• Trump’s 100% tariff on foreign-made semiconductors will boost U.S. chipmakers, benefiting companies like AMD, Micron, and Broadcom while pressuring overseas rivals.
• NVIDIA leads the market, but several U.S. semiconductor firms stand to gain from tighter supply conditions.
• The U.S. semiconductor market is expected to grow at a 7.3% CAGR from 2025 to 2030.

The tech sector is no stranger to market-leading gains. Over the past eight years, it’s finished first or second among the S&P 500’s 11 sectors five times. Since the conclusion of the last bear market, tech posted gains of 57.8% in 2023 and 36.6% in 2024. This year, its 14.36% gain is second only to industrials’ gain of 14.47%.

Much of its recent success was predicated on the explosive demand for AI components and infrastructure. So when news breaks of anything AI-adjacent, it has an outsized impact on the sector—specifically for companies that operate in the microchips and semiconductor industry. 

That was the case on Aug. 6 when President Trump announced a 100% tariff on imported chips. Details are murky, but on the surface, the announcement could be devastating for companies like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company NYSE: TSM while serving as a boon for stateside manufacturers who are forecast to enjoy a 7.3% CAGR in the U.S. market from 2025 to 2030. While NVIDIA NASDAQ: NVDA receives the lion’s share of attention in the semiconductor space, these three companies are also poised to profit.  

AMD: Strong Revenue Growth and AI Demand Drive Bullish Outlook

Advanced Micro Devices NASDAQ: AMD has a market cap of $279.58 billion, which may seem like a drop in the bucket compared to NVIDIA’s $4.44 trillion, but its offerings are equally impressive. The company operates through data center, client, gaming, and embedded segments, offering microprocessors, graphics processing units (GPUs), chipsets, data center solutions, data processing units and adaptive system-on-chip products.

When AMD reported Q2 earnings, it missed on EPS by 6 cents, but it beat on revenue with $7.69 billion, representing 31.70% year-over-year (YOY) growth. In its earnings call, CEO Dr. Lisa Su noted that the company saw robust demand across its computer and AI product portfolio, with revenue growth led by record server and PC processor sales—or CPUs, a type of microchip. 

Beyond record demand for its CPUs, there’s an additional tailwind in play for AMD. NVIDIA and Advanced Micro Devices cut deals with the Trump administration that allow them to continue exporting made-for-China chips in exchange for a 15% payment to the U.S. federal government. While an export tax may seem counterintuitive to AMD’s bottom line, analysts estimate that line of business in China could earn $3 billion per quarter from sales of AMD’s MI308 chip. 

There’s a reason why institutional ownership of AMD stands at 71.34% while short interest is just 2.76%.

Micron Beats Q3 Estimates With $9.3B in Revenue and Strong EPS

Micron Technology NASDAQ: MU is another strong option in the semiconductor and microchip space. Its GPUs are coveted, and the company beat on EPS and revenue when it reported fiscal Q3 results. EPS was $1.91 versus estimates of $1.57 and revenue was $9.30 billion versus estimates of $8.83 billion. 

According to CEO Sanjay Mehrotra, that was record quarterly revenue while data center revenue more than doubled YOY. In addition to Trump’s tariff announcement, Micron updated guidance for its fiscal Q4, which ends Aug. 28. That revision included revenue of $11.2 billion, non-GAAP gross margins of 44.5%, and EPS of $2.85, or 49.21% higher than Q3 EPS. Mehrotra noted that the company “expects to grow revenue by 15%.”

The company’s also expanding its U.S. footprint. In 2023, it began construction on the biggest chip fabrication plant in the U.S., which should go online in 2026. Micron is favored by institutional investors more than AMD with ownership at 80.84%. Over the past 12 months, buyers outnumbered sellers 1,348 to 890, with inflows exceeding outflows $14.10 billion to $9.78 billion. Short interest is just 2.99%. 

Broadcom Stock Rises on AI Chip Strength and Capital Returns

Broadcom NASDAQ: AVGO could also see outsized profits from Trump’s chip tariffs. Earlier this year, the company leapfrogged Tesla to become the seventh largest publicly traded company by market cap. Broadcom operates in two segments: infrastructure software and semiconductor solutions, the latter of which makes it a pure-play chip investment. 

When AVGO reported Q2 earnings, it announced EPS of $1.58 versus estimates of $1.57 and quarterly revenue of $15 billion, which was an increase of 20.2% YOY and beat estimates of $14.98 billion. Icing the cake, the company returned $7 billion to shareholders in Q2 through $2.8 billion in dividends and $4.2 billion in stock repurchases.

With tariff momentum at its back, Broadcom provided Q3 guidance of $15.8 billion in revenue, including $5.1 billion just from its AI semiconductor business line. That would mark 10 consecutive quarters of growth as the company continues to hyperscale. The smart money is in agreement on AVGO’s future: Institutional ownership is 76.43%, and inflows of $225.68 billion have far exceeded outflows of $40.75 billion over the past 12 months. At just 1.01%, short interest is lower than that of AMD and Micron.