Canadian chip and hardware makers brace for tariffs, seek domestic support

Ramee Mossa was months into fundraising for his power hardware company FTEX when U.S. President Donald Trump started looming over the negotiations. As soon as Trump took office, potential financiers in the U.S. began feeling “uneasy” and started asking questions about what a succession of tariffs would mean for Mossa’s Montreal-based company. “For hardware startups, it’s going to make it more difficult for us to raise (money) and it’s going to make it more difficult for companies that make hardware to survive,” Mossa said. He imagines the tariffs will be more of a “minor inconvenience” than a catastrophe for FTEX…