[Financial Channel/Comprehensive Report] When U.S. President Trump tried to bring manufacturing back to the United States through tariffs, TSMC invested heavily in its Arizona factory. However, Taiwanese companies are deploying to both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border, forming another industrial map in North America. Foreign media bluntly stated that the U.S. government’s efforts to bring manufacturing back to the United States through tariffs can only have a limited effect. The key is that some economic models are so entrenched that even Trump will find it difficult to reverse them. This is a map that he cannot redraw.
Foreign media said that if the rise of Ciudad Juárez was driven by American companies, then the current prosperity belongs to Taiwanese companies. As trade tensions between China and the United States intensify, a large number of companies are "near-shoring" factories that rely on low-cost labor in Asia to Mexico. Today, Taiwan's four major manufacturing giants: Foxconn, Inventec, Wistron and Pegatron, all have operations in Ciudad Juárez.
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The article pointed out that Taiwanese manufacturers have moved some of their production capacity that originally relied on low-cost labor in Asia to Mexico to produce AI and cloud servers; on the other side of the border, TSMC plans to build multiple large-scale wafer fabs in Arizona, USA. This division of labor between "high-end chips in the United States and servers in Mexico" also highlights that the scope of changes in tariff policies may be limited when faced with existing supply chains.
These Taiwanese manufacturers initially mainly produced products such as iPhones and Dell computers. However, in recent years, as the demand for AI and cloud computing has exploded, the factories have begun to shift to servers. According to local officials, current and former employees and state government data, these factories currently produce servers for use in data centers of Google, Amazon, Microsoft and other companies, and use the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) to enter the U.S. market.
Mexico currently supplies more than one-third of the computer servers imported from the United States. Last year, computing technology became Mexico's largest export item.
At the same time, Taiwanese companies are also investing in the United States. TSMC plans to invest US$265 billion (approximately NT$8.4 trillion) to build a large-scale wafer fab in Arizona. The article pointed out that while the United States is focusing on the development of high-end chip manufacturing, Mexico's manufacturing and logistics foundation accumulated over the years is suitable for the production of complementary electronic products such as servers.
Mexico also continues to grow in importance. In 2024, Mexico will surpass Canada to become the largest trading partner of the United States; in the first seven months of 2026, Mexico's exports of goods to the United States increased by 16% annually, approaching US$359 billion. The rapid expansion of AI data centers has further boosted server demand.
However, the U.S. government also hopes to reduce the trade deficit and bring manufacturing back home. Since Trump took office, the average tariff on U.S. imported goods has risen from 2.1% to nearly 10%. Mexican automobiles, steel and aluminum have also been affected by the new tariffs. However, after the United States imposed a 25% tariff on Mexican and Canadian goods in March 2025, due to the rebound of companies and the decline of the stock market, products that complied with USMCA rules were exempted a few days later, and these products accounted for about 4/5 of Mexico's exports to the United States.
The article believes that after decades of integration, the U.S.-Mexico supply chain has formed its own economic logic. The U.S. AI data center relies on Juarez to supply servers, and industries such as agriculture, automobiles, and medical equipment are also deeply connected to the markets of the two countries. New high-tech factories continue to be built in Juarez, a sign that companies are betting that the U.S. economy's need for these supply chains may outlast short-term trade policy.
