The U.S. Commerce Department is conducting a national security investigation into imports of semiconductor technology and related downstream products, according to a Federal Register notice put online Monday. 

The official document — which calls for public comments on the investigation — further confirms that chips and the electronics supply chain will not be excluded from U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff plans despite his statement on Friday that many of those products were exempt from his “reciprocal tariffs.”

As part of the probe, the Commerce Department will investigate the “feasibility of increasing domestic semiconductors capacity” in order to reduce reliance on imports and whether additional trade measures, including tariffs, are “necessary to protect national security.”

The investigation encompasses a wide range of items, including chip components such as silicon wafers, chipmaking equipment, and “downstream products that contain semiconductors.” 

Semiconductors play a role in essentially every type of modern electronics, giving the investigation massive implications for Trump’s global trade war as he seeks to boost U.S. manufacturing. 

While exemptions have been made on a range of electronic products, Trump and some of his officials said over the weekend that the reprieve was temporary and part of plans to apply separate tariffs to the sector.

The semiconductor investigation — first initiated by the secretary of commerce on April 1 — sets the grounds for such tariffs to come into effect. 

First, the Commerce Department will allow for public comments on the investigation to be submitted no later than 21 days from Wednesday.

However, on Sunday, Trump reportedly said he will be announcing new tariff rates on imported semiconductors over the next week, and that flexibility will be shown to certain companies. 

On the same day, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told ABC News’ “This Week” that separate tariffs for semiconductors and electronic products were coming in “probably a month or two.” 

Trump’s Commerce Department cited the probe under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, which can permit the U.S. president to impose tariffs on the grounds of national security.

The justification is being used for a similar investigation on pharmaceuticals and pharmaceutical ingredients, which was also disclosed on Monday.

The U.S. is heavily dependent on semiconductor technology imported from markets like Taiwan, South Korea, and the Netherlands. 

However, for years, Washington has been implementing policies aimed at onshoring more of the semiconductor supply chain, including through industrial policies such as the $280 billion CHIPS and Science Act. 

Nvidia, the chipmaker powering much of the artificial intelligence boom, announced on Monday a plan to design and build factories that, for the first time, will produce NVIDIA AI supercomputers entirely in the U.S.

Last month, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, the world’s largest chip foundry, announced its intention to increase its existing investments in advanced semiconductor manufacturing in the U.S. by an additional $100 billion.

LONDON — Adobe has invested in Synthesia, a British artificial intelligence startup, in a bet that the technology will transform video production.

Synthesia told CNBC that Adobe’s venture capital arm injected an undisclosed amount of funds into the startup as part of a “strategic” partnership, without elaborating further on financial and commercial terms.

The startup, which says it serves more than 70% of the Fortune 100, sells a platform that businesses can use to develop videos with life-like avatars generated by AI. Individuals can make their own AI avatars, either at one of Synthesia’s production studios or on a personal device.

Adobe, a creative technology powerhouse valued at roughly $150 billion, is best known for the Photoshop image editing tool. The company also makes Premiere Pro, a video editing platform widely used by professionals in broadcast media, advertising and other industries.

“We’re building the world’s leading AI video platform for enterprise, and Adobe’s investment validates that direction,” Synthesia CEO Victor Riparbelli told CNBC. “We share a vision: democratizing high-quality content creation and making enterprise communication faster and more effective.”

It’s not the first time Adobe has placed a big bet on a venture-backed startup. It previously tried to acquire design platform Figma for $20 billion, but called the deal off following scrutiny from European Union and U.K. regulators. Adobe is also an active venture investor, backing startups such as Captions and VidMob.

“We’ve never chased growth at any cost,” Synthesia’s CEO said, adding the company still had cash left over from a 2023 funding round when it raised funds again earlier this year.

Synthesia was most recently valued at $2.1 billion in an investment round announced in January. Its rivals include Colossyan, DeepBrain AI, Invideo AI, Filmora and Veed.io. The startup also faces competition from OpenAI, whose text-to-video model Sora can create realistic video clips based on user prompts.

South Korea announced Tuesday a support package of 33 trillion won ($23.25 billion) for its vital semiconductor industry, as heightened uncertainty over U.S. tariffs threatens domestic companies.

This comes after U.S. president Donald Trump reportedly said he would be announcing the tariff rate on imported semiconductors soon, after exempting them from his steep “reciprocal” tariffs last Friday.

In a social media post Monday, Trump vowed to investigate the “whole electronics supply chain” on national security grounds.

The U.S. Department of Commerce also released a notice saying it will initiate an investigation “to determine the effects on national security of imports of semiconductors, semiconductor manufacturing equipment, and their derivative products.”

South Korea’s funding support was about a quarter more than the 26 trillion committed last year, according to a press release from the finance ministry.

As part of the measures, the government will subsidize the construction of underground power transmission lines to semiconductor clusters, as well as increase the funding ratio for infrastructure in advanced industrial complexes to 50% from 30%.

A total of 20 trillion won of low-interest loans to semiconductor companies will be offered between 2025 and 2027, up from the current 17 trillion won.

Other measures include introducing training and research programs for domestic master’s and doctoral students as well as global joint research programs for foreign talent.

South Korea is home to some of the world’s top chipmakers, including Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, with semiconductors a key export of the country.

On Tuesday, the South Korean Kospi was up 0.68%, with Samsung climbing 1.07% and SK Hynix up 0.17%.

In 2024, South Korea’s exports of semiconductors stood at $141.9 billion, just over 20% of the country’s $683.6 billion exports.

The U.S. is the second largest export destination for South Korea, with exports rising 10.5% year-on-year to $127.8 billion in 2024, reaching a new annual high for the seventh consecutive year.

On Monday, acting South Korean president Han Duck-soo reportedly said that Trump had “apparently” instructed his administration to conduct immediate tariff negotiations with South Korea, according to local media outlet Yonhap.