President Donald Trump's tariffs on goods imported from Mexico, Canada, and China are currently in effect. Despite these significant economic changes, major Big Tech companies have largely remained silent regarding the potential ramifications these tariffs could have on their operations. This article revisits the situation, following up on previous discussions from February and March, when the initial 10 percent tariff on China was implemented and tariffs on Mexico and Canada were temporarily paused.
In our ongoing effort to gauge the sentiment of Big Tech and adjacent industries, The Verge reached out to numerous companies for their input. The majority of these companies either declined to comment or failed to respond altogether. Those that did provide feedback often issued vague statements that did not offer much clarity.
In a recent round of outreach, we did manage to gather a few new comments. For instance, Walmart's spokesperson, Rodrigo Santos Legaspi, stated, “As we have done in the past, we will aggressively work to keep prices as low as possible for our customers. In the meantime, we encourage all parties to work towards finding common ground that will protect consumers from price hikes and continue to grow our economy.”
CEOs from retail giants like Best Buy and Target have publicly acknowledged that prices in their stores are likely to rise due to the tariffs. Meanwhile, Gigabyte spokesperson Angela Cheng indicated that, “What we’ve seen is that everyone will be increasing the price on the components of GPUs very soon. There will be changes for sure. We’ll need to make changes accordingly. But nothing is confirmed.”
In February, Acer also announced plans to increase prices on its laptops. However, the overall sentiment remains largely unchanged since our last report, with only minor updates. For instance, Google spokesperson Jose Castaneda, Microsoft spokesperson Kate Frischmann, and Nvidia spokesperson Stephanie Matthew have all declined to comment on the current situation, as has Sony spokesperson Kishore Sawh.
Many companies have opted for generic responses. Canon USA, through a general press email, stated that “Canon U.S.A., Inc. continues to monitor the situation regarding the tariffs.” Similarly, DJI mentioned, “we are assessing the impact internally and will be able to share more details once we complete the full evaluation and receive guidance from the USTR or other relevant departments.”
Other companies that have not commented include major players such as Amazon, Apple, Meta, Nintendo, and Samsung, along with numerous others like Alibaba, AMD, Asus, AT&T, Broadcom, Dell, and many more.
The chaotic nature of the Trump administration means that the specifics of these tariffs could change at any moment. Recently, the administration announced a one-month exemption on the automotive tariffs imposed on Canada and Mexico, as reported by Politico. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick hinted that a compromise regarding the tariffs on Mexico and Canada might be forthcoming.
As for the long-term effects of these tariffs on tech companies, we may not see substantial changes until their next major product launches. Questions loom large: Will the iPhone 17 face a price increase? Will consumers have to pay more for the next generation of Ray-Ban Meta glasses? At this juncture, the answers remain uncertain.
