Investments in chips continue in Mexico, but Trump’s threat moves them

Eugenio Marín, executive director of the Mexico-United States Foundation for Science (Fumec), predicts that Foxconn’s investment in Jalisco will not be lost, because production will be focused on components for data centers around the world.

The tariff measures proposed by the Republican will negatively impact the levels of production that are expected to be sent to the United States, says the specialist. “There are many more data centers in the world to supply” that will not have tariffs.

He highlights that Trump has not reached the White House and “it is not yet a reality that they will implement [las acciones arancelarias o las amenazas proteccionistas]”.

According to a report from Nikkei Asia, suppliers to Nvidia and Intel are examining their plans to manufacture semiconductor parts in Mexico and are looking for a way to comply with the possible tariffs proposed by the president-elect of the United States, Donald Trump, on the products from that country.

A source at one of the suppliers told the Middle East: “We have quickly started calculating how many components and parts we might need to produce in the United States to… meet the country of origin requirements of [Trump]”.

The source added that one option is to continue producing smaller, less expensive parts in Mexico and then assemble them into the final product in the United States.

Expansión consulted both companies. Intel reported that the company does not have a manufacturing plant in the country and that design and validation is carried out, so it considers that there will be no effects as mentioned in the Nikkei Asia publication.

For its part, Nvidia had no comments on the subject.

Although one of the sources cited by Nikkei indicated that his company will refrain from making more investments in Mexico, because “it could be a bit risky not to take Trump’s words seriously.” Another of the voices consulted asked to wait until Trump’s inauguration and the official introduction of the tariffs.

Eugenio Marín considered that it is better to have reservations about the statements of the president-elect in the United States.

With information from Fernando Guarneros.