A few weeks ago, we told you that the price of graphics cards could rise early next year, and we explained that this increase would be motivated by the end of an important tariff exemption. Said exemption prevented the 25% increase in rates from taking effect, which GPU and PCB affected, and was awaiting renewal by the Office of the United States Trade Representative, USTR for its English acronym.

As expected, industry giants as well as top fitters have applied for an extension of said exemption, but have yet to receive a response from ÚSTR, making us fear the worst. Fortunately, the said authority finally decided to accept this request and it is already confirmed that once it is completed, planned for 31. they will receive an extension that will last a total of nine months.

Although this is good news leaves us with another deadline that takes us straight to September of next year. We will see whether the ÚSTR decides to extend it again by then or whether the mentioned exception will end definitively. If the latter were to happen, the price of graphics cards would rise considerably, so we’ll have to keep our fingers crossed again.

In an official statement, NVIDIA confirmed that they are making significant efforts to improve PCB manufacturing as well as other key components such as cooling systems in other countries, i.e. to move production outside of Chinabut also acknowledged that these efforts have not been as successful as expected due to the impact of COVID-19.

This represents an oxygen ball for businesses and consumersbut ultimately this is a temporary measure and it is ideal that the major companies in the industry continue to work to reduce their dependence on China and that the production of key components to other countries that are not affected by this increase in tariffs. We will see what happens in the coming months and what situation the sector is in next September.