Chips and Taiwan Are a New Cloud for Tech Earnings

Chip politics are no longer just the chip industry’s problem.

Investors got a sharp reminder last week of just how politicized the semiconductor industry has become—especially ahead of a U.S. presidential election. First came a report that the Biden administration is considering more severe trade restrictions to keep advanced chip manufacturing tools out of the hands of Chinese companies.

Then Bloomberg Businessweek ran an interview with Donald Trump in which the former president and current Republican nominee raised doubts about whether the U.S. under his administration would defend Taiwan from China unless the island democracy starts paying for U.S. protection.

The news poured more than a splash of cold water on what has been a red-hot sector. Chip stocks crashed Wednesday following the initial reports and kept falling. The PHLX Semiconductor Index closed Friday with a weekly loss of nearly 9%. The index had been up 40% for the year to date ahead of the damaging reports after having surged 65% this past year—its best annual performance since 2009.

Semiconductor investors have long been factoring in the growing risk of lost sales to China due to export restrictions. But Trump’s comments about Taiwan add a whole new element of risk: The island is a major hub for manufacturing the world’s most advanced semiconductors and less-advanced but vital ones that go into products such as thermostats, cars and medical devices.

This isn’t just about Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing , the chip-making giant better known as TSMC that produces key processors for companies such as Nvidia , AMD and Apple . The island is also home to many other suppliers of key components used in final chip products. During a speech at a conference in Taipei in June, Nvidia Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang praised Taiwan as “the unsung hero” of the computer industry, showing a slide of more than 100 companies he described as “treasured partners” to the artificial-intelligence chip star .

Hence, Trump’s comments “threw gasoline on an already raging China restriction issue that had the chip stocks in turmoil already,” independent semiconductor analyst Robert Maire wrote in an email. Whatever the intent behind them, they may have raised the odds of an attempt at forced “reunification” by China by creating doubt about America’s response.

Military action against Taiwan wouldn’t just hit chip companies but also the many, many businesses that use those chips. It isn’t a small list: Chips sit at the heart of the cloud computing services offered by Microsoft , Google and Amazon as well as the iPhones sold by Apple and the EVs sold by Tesla , whose CEO is now one of Trump’s largest backers.

Armed conflict between mainland China and Taiwan is hardly a foregone conclusion, even if Trump wins in November. But investors who mostly have been trading on AI hype need to factor a new element of risk into their models—especially since political rhetoric will only grow louder ahead of the election. U.S. policy toward China is a major issue for both parties, and the question of defending Taiwan will very likely arise again.

This comes as investors are also grappling with how to value the AI opportunity, especially as coming tech-earnings reports will likely continue to feature more AI investments than actual revenue.

Risks there still aren’t fully baked in. The Nasdaq Composite Index has come down a bit from the record high it hit earlier this month, but is still up 18% for the year, which is more than double the Dow’s return. And the six megacap tech giants—Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia, Amazon, Google-parent Alphabet and Meta Platforms —have added a collective $3.7 trillion in market value in that time. That is an awfully big bet on a sector that no longer has the luxury of staying out of the political fray.

Berkshire began liquidating its big stake in the banking company in mid-July—and has already unloaded about 15% of its interest. The selling has been fairly aggressive and has totaled about $6 billion. (Berkshire still holds 883 million shares, an 11.3% interest worth $35 billion based on its most recent filing on Aug. 30.)

The selling has prompted speculation about when CEO Warren Buffett, who oversees Berkshire’s $300 billion equity portfolio, will stop. The sales have depressed Bank of America stock, which has underperformed peers since Berkshire began its sell program. The stock closed down 0.9% Thursday at $40.14.

It’s possible that Berkshire will stop selling when the stake drops to 700 million shares. Taxes and history would be the reasons why.

Berkshire accumulated its Bank of America stake in two stages—and at vastly different prices. Berkshire’s initial stake came in 2017 , when it swapped $5 billion of Bank of America preferred stock for 700 million shares of common stock via warrants it received as part of the original preferred investment in 2011.

Berkshire got a sweet deal in that 2011 transaction. At the time, Bank of America was looking for a Buffett imprimatur—and the bank’s stock price was weak and under $10 a share.

Berkshire paid about $7 a share for that initial stake of 700 million common shares. The rest of the Berkshire stake, more than 300 million shares, was mostly purchased in 2018 at around $30 a share.

With Bank of America stock currently trading around $40, Berkshire faces a high tax burden from selling shares from the original stake of 700 million shares, given the low cost basis, and a much lighter tax hit from unloading the rest. Berkshire is subject to corporate taxes—an estimated 25% including local taxes—on gains on any sales of stock. The tax bite is stark.

Berkshire might own $2 to $3 a share in taxes on sales of high-cost stock and $8 a share on low-cost stock purchased for $7 a share.

New York tax expert Robert Willens says corporations, like individuals, can specify the particular lots when they sell stock with multiple cost levels.

“If stock is held in the custody of a broker, an adequate identification is made if the taxpayer specifies to the broker having custody of the stock the particular stock to be sold and, within a reasonable time thereafter, confirmation of such specification is set forth in a written document from the broker,” Willens told Barron’s in an email.

He assumes that Berkshire will identify the high-cost Bank of America stock for the recent sales to minimize its tax liability.

If sellers don’t specify, they generally are subject to “first in, first out,” or FIFO, accounting, meaning that the stock bought first would be subject to any tax on gains.

Buffett tends to be tax-averse—and that may prompt him to keep the original stake of 700 million shares. He could also mull any loyalty he may feel toward Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan , whom Buffett has praised in the past.

Another reason for Berkshire to hold Bank of America is that it’s the company’s only big equity holding among traditional banks after selling shares of U.S. Bancorp , Bank of New York Mellon , JPMorgan Chase , and Wells Fargo in recent years.

Buffett, however, often eliminates stock holdings after he begins selling them down, as he did with the other bank stocks. Berkshire does retain a smaller stake of about $3 billion in Citigroup.

There could be a new filing on sales of Bank of America stock by Berkshire on Thursday evening. It has been three business days since the last one.

Berkshire must file within two business days of any sales of Bank of America stock since it owns more than 10%. The conglomerate will need to get its stake under about 777 million shares, about 100 million below the current level, before it can avoid the two-day filing rule.

It should be said that taxes haven’t deterred Buffett from selling over half of Berkshire’s stake in Apple this year—an estimated $85 billion or more of stock. Barron’s has estimated that Berkshire may owe $15 billion on the bulk of the sales that occurred in the second quarter.

Berkshire now holds 400 million shares of Apple and Barron’s has argued that Buffett may be finished reducing the Apple stake at that round number, which is the same number of shares that Berkshire has held in Coca-Cola for more than two decades.

Buffett may like round numbers—and 700 million could be just the right figure for Bank of America.

Chips and Taiwan Are a New Cloud for Tech Earnings

Security for Taiwan is vital to the chip industry—and to all the tech companies that use those chips

When will Berkshire Hathaway stop selling Bank of America stock?