President Donald Trump’s escalating trade policies and the NVIDIA, which recently banned NVIDIA from selling advanced AI chips to China, have caused significant damage to the global semiconductor industry. This action may be huge Destroy AI and decentralized physical infrastructure network (DEPIN) ecosystems.
A blow to semiconductor supply chain
according to BBCsemiconductors, the backbone of modern technology, for all functions from iPhone to military aircraft. These chips relied on a complex global supply chain when they were invented in the United States. The chips are usually designed in the United States, made in Taiwan, Japan or South Korea, using rare earths mined in China, packaged in Vietnam, and gathered in China before being sold globally. Donald Trump’s decision to stop NVIDIA from selling AI chips to China, especially the H20 GPU tailored for the Chinese market, has ruined this delicate ecosystem.
In addition, President Trump imposed a 32% tariff on Taiwan’s GPUs and servers, and Vietnam-assembled components levied a 46% tariff on the tax rate. These measures increase the cost of the entire supply chain as part of a broader strategy to target Chinese technology rises and inspire U.S. manufacturing. But China has retaliated against tariffs from U.S. chipmakers and restrictions on rare earth exports have further exacerbated the shortage, as the United States relies on 90% of these key materials that China relies on.
This trade war and obstacles will lead to higher costs for semiconductor chips, directly affecting related industries.
Direct impact on traditional AI industry
The traditional AI industry, which covers chip manufacturers and cloud providers, has been hit hard by NVIDIA bans and related tariffs, and the stock market has dropped sharply, reflecting investor concerns.
NVIDIA’s Stock Investment
Nvidia, allegedly CNBCannounced on April 15, 2025 that it will record $5.5 billion in the first quarter of fiscal ended April 27, 2025 due to U.S. export restrictions on exports of H20 graphics processing units to China and other destinations. The fee covers inventory, purchase commitments and related reserves of H20 chips, and the chip is estimated to generate $12 billion to $15 billion in revenue in 2024.
NVIDIA shares slid more than 6% in extended trading following the announcement, reflecting investors’ concerns about losses in China’s revenue, with companies like Bytedance ordering $16 billion in H20 chips in the first quarter of 2025.
Source: Yahoo Finance
AMD’s sharp decline
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) is a competitor in developing AI chips such as MI309 Instinct, and its stock has dropped 8% in after-hours trading on April 15, 2025, as released on X Kobeissi letter. Investors are worried that AMD may face similar restrictions, which will lead to a sharp drop in its revenue as it relies on the Chinese market and TSMC’s manufacturing sector.
Challenges of AI Depin Systems
Depin platforms such as io.net and rendering summarize GPUs for AI training, rendering and data processing, which face unique vulnerabilities due to the challenges of traditional AI supply chains:
- Increased operating costs: The higher GPU prices due to tariffs directly increase the cost of Didi networks. For example, rendering Make itWith NVIDIA support, the edge may be squeezed into a climb in hardware expenses, which may reduce node operator spending.
- Supply Limits: Limited GPU availability prevents individuals from joining the depin network, thereby reducing computing power. Projects like io.net iothe purpose is to procure more than one million GPUs, and if the supply intensifies, it may work hard to expand.
- Income pressure: The Depin platform may need to raise fees for AI developers or cut rewards from node contributors, thus risking user growth. As they continue, the latest market corrections for AI and Depin tokens indicate a decline in sentiment, which may be related to Nvidia’s dilemma.
To cope with these negative changes, Depin Market experienced a significant decline today, reflecting the downturn in traditional AI stocks such as Nvidia and AMD.
| project | Token | Price (USD) | 24 hours change |
| ask | pottery | $231.21 | -2.80% |
| Make it | rndr | $3.64 | -8.70% |
| io.net | io | $0.57 | -7.50% |
| AIOZ Network | aioz | $0.25 | -9.31% |
| Akash Network | akt | $1.04 | -6.22% |
These declines reflect broader market sentiment as investors react to the impact of NVIDIA BAN on GPU supply and cost, which is crucial for Depin operations. The parallel downturn in Depin tokens and traditional stocks highlights the interconnected risks of the AI infrastructure market.
Learn more: Low binance performance has severe impact on investor beliefs
A silver lining? Trump pushes us to produce chips
After NVIDIA announced a $500 billion plan to establish AI supercomputers and chips in the United States, Trump vowed to obtain a fast track license for the domestic chip manufacturing industry, which aims to reduce dependence on Asian supply chains and support Asian supply chains and support US technology leadership. Although the program is expected to produce domestic production for a long time, it still faces significant obstacles, including high costs and a shortage of skilled labor.
Therefore, in the short term, it has hardly mitigated supply chain disruptions that affect AI and Depin projects. The AI Depin project must drive a turbulent landscape to maintain its advantage, while the broader AI industry struggles to cope with the impact of the geopolitical trade war.
