Apple loses $300B in market value as Trump tariffs threaten China-heavy supply chain
Apple lost a whopping $311 billion in market value in trading Thursday — leading a Magnificent 7 rout that wiped out more than $1 trillion in the market bloodbath over fears that President Trump’s reciprocal tariffs will hammer supply chains.
The iPhone maker’s shares plunged by more than 9% as Trump unveiled the heavier-than-expected levies on international trade partners.
That included a 54% tariff rate on goods imported from China, where Apple makes the vast majority of its hardware, as well as a 26% rate for India and 46% rate for Vietnam – two of its other key production hubs.
Apple recorded its worst single-day losses since September 2020. It remains the world’s most valuable company, with a valuation of more than $3 trillion.
Other “Magnificent 7” mega-cap companies also suffered in the market-wide rout. Amazon shares fell 9%, erasing more than $186 billion in market value.
AI chip giant Nvidia fell nearly 8%, or the equivalent of about $210 billion from its valuation.
Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta plunged nearly 9%, while Google parent Alphabet fell almost 4% and Microsoft dropped more than 2%. Elon Musk’s Tesla continued its recent freefall with a 5% decline.
The total hit for all seven companies amounted to $1.033 trillion as the markets teetered.
The blue-chip Dow fell nearly 1,700 points, or 4%, for its worst day since the COVID outbreak in 2020, while tech-heavy Nasdaq index plunged by 1,050 points, or 6%. The broad-based S&P 500 was off by 275 points, or 5%.
Apple’s massive losses come despite CEO Tim Cook’s long-term effort to cultivate close ties with Trump, including attending his inauguration in January.
In February, Apple pledged $500 billion toward the US economy and said it would add 20,000 jobs as part of an effort to woo Trump.
Some officials have suggested that Apple could receive an exemption from the tariffs, but so far, Trump has not announced a decision.
Trump and his allies say the reciprocal tariffs are necessary to rebalance unfair international trade agreements and encourage more companies to make their products in the US.
However, the tariffs announced this week were “worse than the worst case for tariffs” and “baffling for tech,” according to Wedbush analyst Dan Ives.
“Tech stocks will clearly be under major pressure on this announcement as the worries about demand destruction, supply chains, and especially the China/Taiwan piece of the tariffs,” Ives said in a note to clients.
“Apple produces basically all their iPhones in China and the question will be around exceptions/exemptions on this tariff policy,” he added.
