What are semiconductors?

What are semiconductors?

As weve been reporting, US President Donald Trump has said he will give an update on his administrations approach to tariffs on semiconductors.
Everyday devices such as smartphones and laptops rely on semiconductors, which are small and powerful pieces of tech that form the basic building blocks of modern computation.
They are also in routers, switches, and communication infrastructures that are the backbone of the internet, enabling global connectivity.
Made from fragments of raw materials, such as silicon, semiconductors are altered in a process called doping so that they will sometimes conduct electricity and sometimes not. Theyre also incredibly valuable - they are at the heart of a $500bn (£401bn) industry that is expected to double by 2030.
The UK, US, Europe and China rely heavily on Taiwan for semiconductors. The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) provides over half of the worlds supply, including for AMD, Apple, ARM, Broadcom, Marvell, MediaTek and Nvidia.