U.S. trade deficit widens 14% in August to highest level since March 2025

Year-to-date goods deficit still trails 2025 by about $110 billion

The U.S. trade deficit in goods and services widened 14% in August from July to a seasonally adjusted roughly $106 billion, the Commerce Department said — the highest level since March 2025, when companies raced to import goods early in President Trump’s second term to get ahead of tariffs. The August increase reflected higher imports of crude oil, gold, and semiconductors, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing the Commerce Department data.

The data-center build-out has driven imports of semiconductors, computers, and computer accessories up a combined $234 billion in the first eight months of 2026 compared with the same period a year earlier, the Commerce Department figures show. The August goods-only deficit reached approximately $137 billion. Through the first eight months of the year, the goods deficit was about $110 billion smaller than the same period in 2025.

U.S. exports also grew in August, the Commerce Department said, but at a slower pace than imports. Separately, Morgan Stanley forecasts that global demand for data-center capacity will climb to 86 gigawatts in 2028.