Nvidia shares fell sharply on Thursday amid worries that President Donald Trump’s newly announced tariffs would hurt the company’s business.
But just two weeks ago, CEO Jensen Huang suggested his company was well positioned in a trade war, saying Nvidia could be more insulated from tariffs and even a recession.
At the company’s GTC conference on March 19, Huang told financial analysts that he isn’t expecting a significant hit on the company’s outlook from tariffs. “Tariffs will have a little impact for us short term,” he said.
Nvidia shares fell 7.8% Thursday after Trump announced new tariff rates on dozens of countries, including 34% on China, 46% on Vietnam, and 26% on India, effective April 9. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 6%.
The aggregate rate for China could be as high as 79% when including tariffs that have already been imposed on the country. While the White House said semiconductors wouldn’t be exempt, the administration may still put tariffs on chips in the future.
In his March 19 comments, Huang said the company was making progress toward bringing more of its chip production into the U.S. He referenced Taiwan Semiconductor’s recent announcement to invest $100 billion to build more chip factories in Arizona.
Huang said Nvidia is already having chips made in the state and would add more domestic production over time. “The ability to manufacture onshore is not a concern of mine,” he said. “Long term, we’re going to have manufacturing onshore,” stating more AI hardware systems and chips will be made in the U.S. as needed.
Much of Thursday’s selloff went beyond tariffs, though, with investors worried about economic growth and the possibility of a recession due to a trade war.
Some of Nvidia’s largest customers, including Meta Platforms, Alphabet, Amazon.com, and Microsoft, have significant business exposure to consumer spending and enterprise technology budgets, which would be hit by a deteriorating economy.
But Huang has defended Nvidia’s position if growth falters. “If there’s a recession, I think that the companies that are working on AI are going to shift even more investment towards AI,” he said at the recent conference. “Every CEO will know what to do, to shift towards what is growing.”
Nvidia has outperformed during good economic times. Its CEO sees opportunity in difficult times, as well.
Write to Tae Kim at tae.kim@barrons.com
