Consumer Technology Association Puts US Tech Reshoring at $185B-$230B

What changed

The Consumer Technology Association estimated that making 10 major consumer-technology categories entirely in the United States by 2031 would require $185 billion to $230 billion in capital spending, 555,000 to 668,000 additional full-time workers and 19.1 billion to 19.5 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity each year. The categories include smartphones, laptops, televisions, monitors, smart speakers, robotic vacuums, game consoles, earbuds, headphones and smartwatches.

Why it matters

The price tag is only half the problem. The labor demand would be more than double the existing US computer and electronics manufacturing workforce, while the electricity needed for reshoring would compete with the growing demands of AI data centers.

Smartphones show how quickly the policy could reach household budgets. Fully manufacturing one in the US would raise production costs by an estimated 152 percent under tariffs in place today. Laptops would rise 93 percent, smartwatches 97 percent and televisions 41 percent.

Companies might absorb some of that increase, but the CTA estimates they could pass 25 to 50 percent of higher costs to customers. Across the 10 categories, that would mean weighted average price increases of 27 to 55 percent. Replacing an aging phone, laptop or television could therefore become a substantially larger expense.

The numbers describe the scale of the proposal, not a guaranteed outcome. Whether the plan happens, and how the cost would be divided among manufacturers, households and government, remains unsettled.