Netflix defies Trump tariffs with $1B investment
Netflix is making a huge international investment, despite President Donald Trump 's wishes. The streaming giant's CEO, Ted Sarandos, announced a $1.14 billion investment to help produce a pipeline of new shows in Spain . He made the declaration during a press conference in Tres Cantos, Spain, on Tuesday. Sarandos said the money will flow into the region between 2025 and 2028.
It comes after the President said in May that he would slap a 100 percent tariff on any movie produced outside of the US . Netflix first started making content in Spain in 2015, producing well-watched shows like Money Heist.
The major film and TV producer has continued to build production capacity, including a 10 soundstage studio complex in Madrid. 'Alongside your rich cultural heritage, vibrant entertainment industry and brilliant creative talent, Spain is also a great place to do business,' Sarandos said to an audience of journalists, movie producers, and local politicians. 'The last 10 years have been nothing short of extraordinary.'
Trump's tariff announcement earlier this year has confused film production leaders, and offered little detail about how the levy would work in practice. 'Other countries are offering all sorts of incentives to draw our filmmakers and studios away from the United States,' the President claimed on his Truth Social platform.
'Hollywood and many other areas within the USA are being devastated.' Like the sweeping tariffs placed on other industries — like 50 percent steel and aluminum levies or 25 percent automotive import fees — President Trump believes that the higher taxes will motivate increased investment in US production.
Netflix's stock tumbled the day after the social media post . But it's impossible to know the knock-on impacts if Trump's policy was implemented. The White House hasn't revealed how it plans on assessing the value of international films before the tariff is applied.
'Although no final decisions on foreign film tariffs have been made, the Administration is exploring all options to deliver on President Trump's directive to safeguard our country's national and economic security while Making Hollywood Great Again,' White House spokesman, Kush Desai, said. In 2024, film industry experts reported a schedule of 5,048 total film and TV shoot days in Hollywood. That is good for a 36.4 percent drop from the five-year average. Other US production hubs, like Atlanta and Austin, have seen slower growth.
Analysts worry that Trump's potential policy could make streamers slow down the number of shows they could produce. 'There's also a risk of retaliatory tariffs against American content overseas,' Barton Crockett, an analyst with Rosenblatt Securities, told Reuters. 'Raising the cost to produce movies could lead studios to make less content.'
Hollywood production companies had already been in the crosshairs of back-and-forth tariff threats in the US trade war with China. Beijing is restricting the number of movies produced in Hollywood that can play in China, a move that can destroy the bottom line for multiple major US producers. Netflix's investment in Spain also comes as the company wrangles with regulators in other countries.
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