Amazon joins Apple in demanding Bloomberg retract microchip report

Andy Jassy, CEO of Amazon Web
Services.
REUTERS/Mike
Blake

• Andy Jassy, the CEO of Amazon Web Services, has echoed
  Tim Cook in calling for Bloomberg’s report on a Chinese
  hardware hack to be retracted.
• Cook told Buzzfeed last week that there was “no truth”
  in Bloomberg’s report about Apple.
• The CEO of Super Micro, the server company at the heart
  of the report, also issued a statement asking for Bloomberg to
  walk back the story.

Amazon and Super Micro have joined Apple in demanding that
Bloomberg retract its explosive report on China planting
microchips in tech hardware to spy on American companies.

Last week, Apple
CEO Tim Cook refuted Bloomberg’s report from earlier this
month that
Chinese spies placed microchips inside servers to spy on the
US. “There is no truth in their story about Apple,” Cook told
BuzzFeed.

Now a senior Amazon executive has thrown his lot in with Cook.
Andy Jassy, CEO of Amazon Web Services, tweeted on Monday that
Bloomberg’s story was “wrong about Amazon, too.”

“They offered no proof, story kept changing, and showed no
interest in our answers unless we could validate their theories,”
he wrote. “Reporters got played or took liberties. Bloomberg
should retract.”

Business Insider has contacted Amazon to ask if Jassy’s statement
is reflective of the company’s position.

Furthermore, in a statement obtained
by CNBC, Charles Liang CEO of Super Micro — the server
company at the heart of Bloomberg’s story — also called for
Bloomberg to walk back the story.

“Bloomberg should act responsibly and retract its unsupported
allegations that malicious hardware components were implanted in
our motherboards during the manufacturing process,” said Liang.

“Bloomberg has not produced a single affected motherboard, we
have seen no malicious hardware components in our products, no
government agency has contacted us about malicious hardware
components, and no customer has reported finding any malicious
hardware components, either,” he added.

Business Insider has contacted Bloomberg for comment. Up until
now, it has stood by the story, telling Business Insider earlier
this month:

“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.”