Global tech giants' anxieties about Taiwan's geopolitics may be deeper than outsiders realize. (New York Times report)Refers toAfter attending a classified briefing on the situation in Taiwan led by the CIA, Apple CEO Tim Cook privately told U.S. officials that he was so scared that he "slept with one eye open."
For a long time, U.S. intelligence agencies have been concerned about the possibility of Chinese military action against Taiwan. This concern culminated in a shocking educational exercise in 2023 that was never made public and was orchestrated by senior U.S. government officials.
Top-Secret Briefing in Silicon Valley: Tech Giants Gather, CIA Director Issues Warning
This highly classified briefing took place in July 2023. At the time, U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo was frustrated with the progress in getting tech companies to switch orders, so she requested CIA Director William J. Burns and Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines to travel to Silicon Valley for a briefing with the latest intelligence on China and Taiwan.
The lineup for this briefing was extremely rare, encompassing almost all the leaders of the world's most reliant tech giants on TSMC's advanced manufacturing processes, including Apple CEO Tim Cook, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, AMD CEO Lisa Su, and Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon, who participated via video conference.
In a heavily guarded briefing room, the CIA and the Director of National Intelligence issued a stern warning to the executives, pointing out that China's expanding military spending in recent years could mean that the authorities are preparing to take action against Taiwan in 2027. The report indicates that the ultimate goal of this move by the US government is to try to persuade giants like Apple to shift their chip orders from TSMC in Taiwan to foundries in the US or South Korea.
Tim Cook's unease stems from Apple's perceived "powerlessness."
The briefing clearly had a significant psychological impact on the attendees. According to sources, after the briefing, Tim Cook expressed strong unease to officials, even describing his concerns about supply chain risks as "sleeping with one eye open."
Not only the US government, but also TSMC itself has been revealed to have developed contingency plans to deal with potential geopolitical conflicts. These plans include the ability to "remotely disable" its advanced chip manufacturing equipment, such as extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography equipment, located in Taiwan, in the worst-case scenario to ensure that core technologies do not fall into the hands of foreigners.
