Apple, Amazon, Nvidia and other U.S. big tech stocks hit by tariffs

Shares in retailers such as Walmart, Target, along with major consumer brands, also tumble as Trump targets suppliers

Author of the article:

Financial Times

Michael Acton and Stephen Morris in San Francisco and Gregory Meyer in New York

Published Apr 03, 2025  •  4 minute read

The escalation of Trump's global trade war comes after top executives spent months courting the president in an effort to soften or gain exemptions from policies that could hit their bottom line. Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images/Postmedia files

U.S. President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff regime threatens upheaval for Apple Inc., Amazon.com, Inc. and other U.S. companies that rely heavily on manufacturing in China and other countries now targeted for extra levies.

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The U.S. president’s extra tariffs, due to come into effect within days, impose a universal 10 per cent levy on all countries. But they are much steeper for many of the Asian countries whose factories are deeply embedded in supply chains relied on by U.S. multinationals.

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The extent of new tariffs was “worse than the worst case” scenario that markets feared, wrote Wedbush Securities Inc. analyst Daniel Ives.

China faces a reciprocal 34 per cent tariff, Trump said, on top of a 20 per cent tariff he has already imposed. Taiwan faces a reciprocal tariff of 32 per cent, although semiconductors, a geopolitically critical export, are exempt for now.

Vietnam and India, which have also become important production centres for the likes of Apple, face reciprocal tariffs of 46 per cent and 26 per cent, respectively.

The tech sector “will clearly be under major pressure on this announcement [over] worries about demand destruction, supply chains and especially the China and Taiwan piece of the tariffs,” Ives noted.

Technology companies were among the hardest hit in the initial market reaction, with contracts tracking the Nasdaq index down four per cent. Shares of Apple fell seven per cent in after-hours trading on Wednesday, while Amazon slid about six per cent.

Daniel Newman, chief executive of The Futurum Group, described Trump’s move as a “rip the Band-Aid-off moment” for tech investors who have been jittery for weeks.

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“You’re watching the market react and you’re going: the whole world has basically become completely dependent on us having this very accessible economy,” he said.

The escalation of Trump’s global trade war comes after top executives spent months courting the president in an effort to soften or gain exemptions from policies that could hit their bottom line.

Apple declined to comment on whether there was any prospect of it securing a carve-out from the new tariffs, as it managed to do during Trump’s first term. A White House spokesperson confirmed there were no exemptions for Apple in the president’s executive order.

Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive, is walking a geopolitical tightrope, with the company’s supply chains tightly bound to China, where contract manufacturer Foxconn (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. Ltd.) pumps out millions of iPhones each year. A US$500 billion spending plan announced in February was seen as an attempt to placate Trump.

Apple ships about 50 million iPhones to the U.S. each year, with the vast majority made in China. The iPhone remains the company’s flagship product and accounts for more than half of its total revenue. Its Mac, iPad, wearables and fast-growing services business make up the rest.

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Amazon has similarly engaged in a recent campaign to woo Trump, having faced the president’s ire during his first term. Company founder Jeff Bezos attended Trump’s swearing-in ceremony and has dined with him several times in recent months.

The Seattle-based conglomerate is dependent on Chinese imports to stock its warehouses, and about a quarter of its retail arm’s costs are tied to China, according to Morgan Stanley & Co. analysts.

Nvidia Corp. shares, meanwhile, shed more than five per cent after-hours. The chip giant relies on Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company to manufacture its cutting-edge artificial intelligence chips.

Nvidia, whose chief executive Jensen Huang similarly promised hundreds of billions of dollars in spending in the U.S. over the next four years in an interview with the Financial Times last month, declined to comment.

Trump also confirmed that 25 per cent tariffs will be imposed on all foreign-made cars and parts at midnight, hitting the stocks of all U.S. carmakers.

Shares in Tesla Inc. fell eight per cent in after-hours trading as investors worried about the impact on its global supply chain, as well as the prospect of retaliatory tariffs on the world’s largest electric vehicle maker.

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Last month Tesla warned that the cost of making cars would increase because “certain parts and components are difficult or impossible to source within the U.S.” and American vehicles would become less competitive overseas.

Major retailers’ shares also hit

Investors’ fears over the fallout were not confined to the tech sector. Shares in retailers and consumer brands also sank, with Walmart Inc. dropping seven per cent, Target Corp. slipping more than five per cent and Nike Inc. down seven per cent in after-hours trading on Wednesday.

The moves come despite many large U.S. retailers having already sought to diversify their supply chains after Trump placed steep tariffs on imports from China in his first term.

Suppliers to Home Depot Inc., the largest home improvement chain, moved some production to south-east Asia, Mexico and the U.S., chief executive Ted Decker said last month.

Target has shifted production of clothing out of China and increasingly to Central American countries such as Guatemala and Honduras, chief commercial officer Rick Gomez said last month. Trump hit Guatemala and Honduras with 10 per cent tariff rates on Wednesday.

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Target declined to comment.

“These newly announced tariffs, and the expected retaliatory tariffs on American businesses, risk destabilizing the U.S. economy, undermining the goals of bolstering domestic manufacturing and growth,” said Michael Hanson, senior executive vice-president at the U.S. Retail Industry Leaders Association, which counts Target as a member.

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The new tariffs sparked an immediate push for special relief. The Consumer Brands Association, whose members include food manufacturers PepsiCo Inc., Mondelez International Inc. and Kraft Heinz Co., petitioned to exempt certain “critical ingredients” from the levies.

“We encourage President Trump and his trade advisers to fine-tune their approach and exempt key ingredients and inputs in order to protect manufacturing jobs and prevent unnecessary inflation at the grocery store,” the association said.

Additional reporting by Rafe Uddin, Hannah Murphy and Alex Rogers

© 2025 The Financial Times Ltd

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