• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia

Trendingnow

1

Trump, who has repeatedly called climate change fake, is now threatening Brazil with tariffs over the deforestation of the Amazon

2

Current price of oil as of June 8, 2026

3

'We didn’t see this coming': Wall Street eats its forecasts as stocks sell off globally on fear of AI bubble ahead of SpaceX IPO

1

Trump, who has repeatedly called climate change fake, is now threatening Brazil with tariffs over the deforestation of the Amazon

2

Current price of oil as of June 8, 2026

3

'We didn’t see this coming': Wall Street eats its forecasts as stocks sell off globally on fear of AI bubble ahead of SpaceX IPO
Apple

Apple Calls on Bloomberg to Retract Story That Claimed China Snuck Spy Chips on Apple Servers

By
Glenn Fleishman
Glenn Fleishman
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
Glenn Fleishman
Glenn Fleishman
Down Arrow Button Icon
October 19, 2018, 6:59 PM ET

Apple CEO Tim Cook said Bloomberg Businessweek should retract an investigative article it published Oct. 4 that claimed servers bought by Apple, Amazon, and over two dozen other unidentified companies contained spy circuitry installed by China.

In an interview with Buzzfeed News, Cook said: “There is no truth in their story about Apple. They need to do that right thing and retract it.” Cook, who said he was involved in discussions with Bloomberg reporters from the beginning, stated that the news organization never presented Apple with specific details, and believes the story relied on “vague secondhand accounts.” Apple previously denied it had contacted or been contacted by the FBI or other government agencies, also claimed in the story.

Apple didn’t immediately reply to Fortune‘s request for comment.

Buzzfeed noted that Apple has never previously asked publicly for an article’s retraction, even when the company has denied its accuracy. A search of newspaper archives appears to confirm that. The radio program This American Life chose to retract a 2012 episode about Apple’s major Chinese manufacturing partner, Foxconn, after it says it discovered the story’s primary contributor had invented details and changed facts.

Bloomberg’s investigation said that the Chinese government had infiltrated the supply chain for Super Micro, a major manufacturer of motherboards used in servers. Motherboards contain the primary processor, memory, and other circuitry for a computer to operate.

Through secret design changes in the factory, the Chinese military was able to insert a small custom chip it had designed into motherboards for the video-compression server maker Elemental, which relied on Super Micro for manufacturing. These circuits could subvert the operating system and communicate over the Internet to control servers operated by China to siphon information of any kind, including sensitive data—such as private encryption keys—transmitted within a server, and launch attacks from a privileged position inside the corporate and government networks on which Elemental servers were installed.

The blockbuster account has roiled information security experts as well as journalists who have extensively covered the field, as no one has yet been able to confirm the story. The Bloomberg article relied on 17 anonymous sources in the U.S. government and associated with Apple and other companies.

While no party involved has argued that Bloomberg fabricated information, Cook’s call for a retraction comes closest to alleging that the news outlet failed to verify accounts provided by its sources.

One expert quoted in the story by name, Joe Fitzpatrick, spoke to Bloomberg during the reporting process about the general form of an attack as described in the article. Later, in a podcast, he told Bloomberg that the scenario described by Bloomberg “didn’t make sense.” He also said that Bloomberg’s account matched his hypothetical scenario so closely that it “seemed like they had been lifted from the conversations I had about theoretically how hardware implants work.”

Bloomberg continues to stand by its reporting, according to a statement provided to Fortune by a company spokesperson. “Bloomberg Businessweek’s investigation is the result of more than a year of reporting, during which we conducted more than 100 interviews. Seventeen individual sources, including government officials and insiders at the companies, confirmed the manipulation of hardware and other elements of the attacks. We also published three companies’ full statements, as well as a statement from China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. We stand by our story and are confident in our reporting and sources.”

A number of companies, government agencies, independent security analysts, and government officials have released detailed rebuttals or made explicit statements rejecting most of the article’s account about the discovery of malicious hardware.

Apple released a statement on Oct. 4, “What Businessweek got wrong about Apple,” and sent a letter on Oct. 8 to Congress denying both general and specific claims. Amazon acquired Elemental in 2015. It denied the details of the story as relates to that firm and its use of Elemental servers.

Super Micro told Reuters that it had never sold servers with malicious chips, never found any in hardware it had manufactured, were never told by a customer they had discovered any, and that no government agency had ever contacted the firm.

The Department of Homeland Security also released a statement, saying on Oct. 6 “we have no reason to doubt the statements from the companies named in the story.” The British national cyber security agency also backed Apple and Amazon’s statement.

About the Author
By Glenn Fleishman
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon

Latest in

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • World's Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
  • Lists Calendar
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Latest in

A man put a drink in front of Trump
HealthFood and drink
A Biden-era study told Americans to drink less alcohol. The Trump admin ‘sidelined’ the research facing pressure from the alcohol lobby
By Laura Ungar, Ali Swenson and The Associated PressJune 9, 2026
1 hour ago
Teenage boy on laptop
SuccessJobs
Around 22 million teenagers are making their pocket money on video games, online reselling, and in-game platforms like Roblox
By Emma BurleighJune 9, 2026
1 hour ago
Lockheed, Palantir and Amazon helped fund Trump’s White House ballroom. They also share more than $50 billion in federal contracts
PoliticsWhite House
Lockheed, Palantir and Amazon helped fund Trump’s White House ballroom. They also share more than $50 billion in federal contracts
By Catherina GioinoJune 9, 2026
1 hour ago
Traders sitting at computers react
InvestingStock
AI stocks are recovering after suddenly tanking last week as oil prices drop more than 3%
By Stan Choe and The Associated PressJune 9, 2026
1 hour ago
MIT researchers made a wristband to teach robots how to do housework and surgery
AIRobots
MIT researchers made a wristband to teach robots how to do housework and surgery
By The Associated Press and Rodrique NgowiJune 9, 2026
1 hour ago
Marguerite Casey Foundation to donate half a billion by 2036 to help rescue “suffering” nonprofits under Trump
MPWphilanthropy
Marguerite Casey Foundation to donate half a billion by 2036 to help rescue “suffering” nonprofits under Trump
By The Associated Press and James PollardJune 9, 2026
2 hours ago

Most Popular

Trump, who has repeatedly called climate change fake, is now threatening Brazil with tariffs over the deforestation of the Amazon
Environment
Trump, who has repeatedly called climate change fake, is now threatening Brazil with tariffs over the deforestation of the Amazon
By Sasha RogelbergJune 8, 2026
20 hours ago
Current price of oil as of June 8, 2026
Personal Finance
Current price of oil as of June 8, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerJune 8, 2026
1 day ago
'We didn’t see this coming': Wall Street eats its forecasts as stocks sell off globally on fear of AI bubble ahead of SpaceX IPO
Economy
'We didn’t see this coming': Wall Street eats its forecasts as stocks sell off globally on fear of AI bubble ahead of SpaceX IPO
By Jim EdwardsJune 8, 2026
1 day ago
Gen Zers are arriving at college unable to even read a sentence—professors warn it could lead to a generation of anxious and lonely graduates
Success
Gen Zers are arriving at college unable to even read a sentence—professors warn it could lead to a generation of anxious and lonely graduates
By Preston ForeJune 7, 2026
2 days ago
'The golden years are not golden': Boomers are hoarding most of America's wealth and power because they're terrified of outliving their money
Economy
'The golden years are not golden': Boomers are hoarding most of America's wealth and power because they're terrified of outliving their money
By Nick LichtenbergJune 7, 2026
2 days ago
Current price of silver as of Monday, June 8, 2026
Personal Finance
Current price of silver as of Monday, June 8, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerJune 8, 2026
1 day ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.