Wedbush Securities strongly criticized President Trump’s new global tariffs by calling them an “economic Armageddon” for the tech industry. Analysts led by Dan Ives said that the damage from these tariffs is worse than anything the market has seen in decades, including the dot-com crash and the 2008 financial crisis. Instead of using a simple system of matching tariffs with trading partners, the administration introduced a “convoluted set of numbers/calculations that appear to be taking each nation’s trade surplus [and dividing it] by their total imports with the U.S.,” which Wedbush believes will backfire badly.
They warned that trying to bring back 1980s-style U.S. manufacturing with high tariffs is a failed idea that will seriously hurt the tech industry and the ongoing AI boom. The U.S. tech supply chain is built on making products globally at low costs, and these tariffs could destroy that system. Wedbush said that the impact could set the U.S. tech industry back ten years, while countries like China — which just responded with its own tariffs — could move ahead.
Tariffs of 50% or more on Chinese goods and 32% on products from Taiwan would disrupt supply chains and drive up prices on electronics by 40–50%. That could make a U.S.-made iPhone cost $3,500. In addition, the AI revolution, driven by Apple (AAPL), Nvidia (NVDA), Microsoft (MSFT), and OpenAI, could slow down sharply. Wedbush estimates that tech earnings would drop at least 15%, and the supply chain would become as complicated as it was during COVID-19. If talks don’t start soon, the U.S. could face a recession or even stagflation — and consumers will pay the price.
Which Tech Stock Is the Better Buy?
Turning to Wall Street, out of the three stocks mentioned above, analysts think that NVDA stock has the most room to run. In fact, NVDA’s average price target of $174.78 per share implies almost 85% upside potential. On the other hand, analysts expect the least from AAPL stock, as its average price target of $248.75 equates to a gain of 28.1%.
