TSMC: Chip stocks update: Nvidia, AMD, TSMC, Intel share prices fall after Trump's export license demand

Shares in Nvidia Corporation and other chip technology companies are down in premarket trading this morning after Nvidia confirmed that it would take a significant financial hit to cover costs associated with a newly required export license so it can ship some of its latest chips outside of the United States. Here's what you need to know about the new requirement and its effect on tech stocks. What's happened? Yesterday, AI chipmaking giant Nvidia revealed that it will record a $5.5 billion charge this year related to its H20 chips, sending the stock down in premarket trading this morning. Nvidia made the revelation about a week after the Trump administration added new export license requirements to the H20. Nvidia initially revealed that information in a Form 8-K filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) dated April 9. In that filing, Nvidia revealed that the U.S. government now requires Nvidia to obtain an export license to export its H20 chips to China and select other countries. Due to this, Nvidia expects to incur about $5.5 billion in costs related to "inventory, purchase commitments, and related reserves" of the H20. The H20 chip is a chip Nvidia designed especially for the Chinese marketplace in order to comply with U.S. export restrictions, notes CNBC. In 2024, Nvidia made between $12 billion and $15 billion selling the H20. But now the associated $5.5 billion charge will take a significant chunk out of those revenues. The Trump administration's new export controls are also a sign that Nvidia could face an increasingly challenging environment when exporting its chips to countries that the U.S. believes could use them in ways that could disadvantage America. In Nvidia's 8-K filing, the company said that the new export license requirement covers "the Company's H20 integrated circuits and any other circuits achieving the H20's memory bandwidth, interconnect bandwidth, or combination thereof" and that the United States government "indicated that the license requirement addresses the risk that the covered products may be used in, or diverted to, a supercomputer in China." But China (including Hong Kong and Macau), isn't the only country that the new export license requirement applies to. The license is also required for other so-called "D:5 countries." According to a March 2024 publication by the United States Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security, D:5 countries comprise over two dozen nations, including Afghanistan, Cambodia, Iran, Libya, Nicaragua, Russia, and Venezuela. On April 14, the United States government said the license requirement would "be in effect for the indefinite future," according to Nvidia's filing. Chip stocks fall The expected $5.5 billion charge related to Nvidia's H20 chips has sent the stock tumbling nearly 6% in premarket trading this morning as of the time of this writing. Nvidia shares (Nasdaq: NVDA) are currently down around $6.45 to $105.75. However, it's not just Nvidia shares that are down. The stock prices of chipmakers often move in unison-suggesting that most investors believe that what is good or bad for one company could be good or bad for the chip industry as a whole. The new export license requirement on Nvidia is a sign to many that U.S. chipmakers may see rougher waters ahead when it comes to exporting their products across the globe. Rougher export waters could lead to higher costs, reduced profits, or both. Other chipmakers this morning are currently seeing their stock price down, too, including: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (NYSE: TSM): down 3% Intel Corporation (Nasdaq: INTC): down 2.7% Broadcom Inc. (Nasdaq: AVGO): down 4% Micron Technology, Inc. (Nasdaq: MU): down 3.8% Arm Holdings plc (Nasdaq: ARM): down 4.8% QUALCOMM Incorporated (Nasdaq: QCOM): down 2.2% Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (Nasdaq: AMD): down 7% ASML warns about weaker orders However, the Nvidia news may not be the only thing dragging down these other chip companies. Currently, shares in the Dutch company ASML Holding N.V. (Nasdaq: ASML) are also down 4.7% in premarket trading as of the time of this writing. ASML isn't a chip maker itself. It manufactures the critical machines that chipmakers need to produce their chips. As noted by the Wall Street Journal, ASML has now reported that orders for its machines that help make semiconductors totaled $4.45 billion in its first quarter. That was well below the $5.5 billion that analysts were expecting, suggesting a massive slowdown in once-expected production by chipmakers. ASML warned that President Trump's policies were creating uncertainty for the semiconductor industry. Not including today's premarket falls, companies operating in the semiconductor space have had a rough 2025 so far-not helped by Trump's recent tariff policies and now, tightening export rules. As of market close yesterday, since the beginning of the year, NVDA shares were down 16.4%, TSM shares were down 21.4%, AVGO shares were down 22.8%, MU shares were down 15.5%, AMD shares were down 21.1%, and ARM shares were down 17.5%. Before today's premarket drop, ASML shares were down 1.8% for the year.