Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.‘s $100 billion commitment to expand manufacturing in the U.S. is “great news,” Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon told CNBC on Tuesday, adding it helps with diversification of chipmaking locations.

Amon also addressed U.S President Donald Trump’s tariff policy, suggesting longer term technology trends would outweigh any short term uncertainty.

Trump announced on Monday that TSMC would invest $100 billion in the U.S. which would go toward building more chip fabrication plants in Arizona. TSMC is the world’s largest semiconductor manufacturer and supplies chips to the likes of Qualcomm, Apple and Nvidia.

The U.S., under leadership of both Trump and former President Joe Biden, has sought to bring more cutting-edge chip manufacturing to American soil on the grounds that it is a matter of national and economic security to have these advanced technologies made closer to home.

Many in the technology industry have backed these plans, including Qualcomm.

“Look, this is great news,” Amon said. “It shows that semiconductors are important. It’s going to be important for … the economy. Economic security means access to semiconductors. More manufacturing is music to our ears.”

Amon said that some of Qualcomm’s chips are already manufactured in TSMC’s existing plants in Arizona and in the future, the company will get more semiconductors made in the U.S.

“TSMC is a great supplier of manufacturing for Qualcomm. They have a facility in Arizona. We already have chips built in Arizona. The more capacity that they put we’re going to use it, same way we’ve been using in Taiwan, we’re going to use it in other locations,” Amon said.

Global companies are also digesting the imposition of tariffs by the U.S. on Mexico and Canada as well as additional duties on China.

Amon said it’s currently difficult to predict the impact on Qualcomm from the tariffs.

“It’s hard to tell because you don’t know exactly how this is going to go. The interesting thing is we’re big
exporters of chips. We’re not an importer of chips … Chips are going to devices. They’re made all over the world, and it’s hard to really know what is happening,” Amon said.

“We’re just is going to navigate based on whatever the outcome is.”

The Qualcomm CEO said there are a number of key technology trends that are likely to support the U.S. giant’s business in the long term, over the short term tariff uncertainty.

We are right at the “beginning of a significant upgrade for AI smartphones. We’re seeing PCs changing to AI PCs. Cars are becoming computers. That’s what’s driving our business, not necessarily what we’re going to see in the short term,” Amon said.

Samsung will launch its extended reality headset this year, a spokesperson for the company told CNBC on Tuesday.

The device, dubbed Project Moohan, is Samsung’s answer to Apple‘s $3,500 Vision Pro, which was launched last year.

Samsung teased the headset last year and put it on display at this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

Samsung refers to the product as “extended reality” or XR device which aims to merge the digital and physical world. However, there are currently few details about the device. Four cameras are visible in the front lens of the physical headset and there appears to be touch controls on the side.

Samsung worked alongside both Qualcomm and Google to develop a new kind of operating system for these kind of devices, known as the Android XR platform.

In December, Samsung said Google Gemini would be installed in the headset allowing wearers to experience a “conversation user interface.”

This would presumably enable users to interact with Gemini, Google’s AI assistant, to help navigate through apps and tasks. The cameras also suggest there will be some sort of gesture control similar to Apple’s Vision Pro.

“To me, the breakthrough technology is a combination of advanced vision capability with intelligence that understands user intention. I think without the intelligence part, it’s a defective product,” Patrick Chomet, executive vice president at Samsung’s mobile division, told CNBC in an interview on Tuesday.

Chomet hinted at a world envisioned by many consumer electronics firms, where smarter AI digital assistants are able to more intuitively understand user requirements on a device.

Samsung was one of the early players in virtual reality headsets, a market that never really took off the way many companies had predicted. But with technology advancing in areas from displays to chips, mixed or extended reality has been touted by big players as a new frontier in computing.

Samsung teased a future product roadmap during a January presentation when it launched its flagship S25 series of smartphones. One slide of the presentation showed outlines of future devices including a trifold smartphone, similar to Huawei’s Mate XT, as well as the Project Moohan headset.

The final product was a pair of glasses, which could hint at a different type of future XR headset. Smart glasses offer similar experiences to a headset but without wearing a bulky device.

Companies including Meta, Snap and XReal have been developing so-called augmented reality glasses. AR is when digital images are overlaid on the real world in front of you.

CNBC reported last year that Samsung, Qualcomm and Google were collaborating on a mixed-reality set of glasses. Samsung appeared to confirm such a collaboration at the S25 event in January.

Chomet did not give a timeline for the launch of a glasses product. However, he said that it is likely people will use multiple devices.

“Probably for quite some time still the smartphone will be the most used device,” Chomet said. “I see a world where people have various things including in their home, in their car. And the device will help you accomplish what you need to accomplish.”

Technology stocks have slumped more than 7% since President Donald Trump took office in January, with new tariffs setting off a trade war and adding fuel to the risk-off sentiment on Wall Street.

Economists warned the tariff spat could spike inflation and send shockwaves worldwide, prompting investors to dump winning stocks and mitigate risk.

The fears have battered technology stocks that led the market in the wake of Trump’s presidential victory. The S&P 500 technology sector fell 1% on Tuesday, building on a 3.5% loss from the previous session. It’s down 7.6% since Trump’s inauguration.

Tariffs may spike manufacturing costs for leading technology companies such as Apple and Nvidia that assemble and manufacture products outside the U.S.

Nvidia, the leading artificial intelligence chipmaker, fell nearly 9% on Monday in response to the tariffs and has plummeted more than 17% since Trump took office. Shares continued to slip Tuesday.

The company makes most of its chips in Taiwan but manufactures some more complex systems in other regions. Nvidia said it plans to produce some chips at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing‘s planned facilities in the U.S. Trump announced Monday that the company will be investing an additional $100 billion toward building five new fabrication facilities in Arizona, bringing TSMC’s total investment in the U.S. to $165 billion.

Semiconductor stocks have also underperformed, with the VanEck Semiconductor ETF down nearly 14% since the inauguration. Advanced Micro Devices has shed about 20%, while Broadcom and Marvell Technology have tanked more than 21% and 31%, respectively.

Elon Musk-backed Tesla has lost a third of its value since the inauguration. Alphabet has dropped about 15%, while Microsoft and Amazon are down at least 10% each. Apple is up 3%.

Trump smashed hopes of a potential last-minute deal Monday, clearing the way for 25% duties on Canada and Mexico to go into effect. He said there was “no room left” to discuss alternatives after weeks of negotiations. He also put an additional 10% tariff on Chinese goods.

All three countries responded to the new levies. Canada said it would implement retaliatory tariffs as soon as Tuesday, and Mexico said it is preparing to announce a plan Sunday. China has punched back with a tariff of up to 15% on some U.S. goods.