CIA briefing on Taiwan: Apple CEO Tim Cook slept poorly

It was a meeting of rare importance: In July 2023, Apple CEO Tim Cook, along with CEOs of other major US tech companies, was invited to a briefing by the US foreign intelligence agency CIA. The topic: the precarious situation in Taiwan. US authorities have long feared that China could annex the island republic. This would also trigger an earthquake in the global economy. Particularly affected: the US tech industry. Cook later said that he slept with one eye open the night after the briefing, reports the New York Times.

If Taiwan fails, Apple fails too: The iPhone manufacturer is completely dependent on the chips from its supplier TSMC. Nevertheless, US corporations are doing too little to reduce this dependency, according to the report. Not since the presidency of Donald Trump have US governments tried to persuade the tech industry to bring chip production at least partially back to their own country. While President Joe Biden wanted to set incentives, Trump is trying with the threat of tariffs.

Briefing set little in motion

But even if Cook couldn't sleep well: Three years ago, then-CIA Director William Burns and Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines could not trigger such a lasting shock that Apple placed significant orders with US chip manufacturers. In the briefing, which was initiated by Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, a possible Chinese attack on Taiwan in 2027 was warned about, citing unnamed participants. In addition to Cook, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and AMD CEO Lisa Su participated. Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon was connected via video.

Tariff policy has proven to be more effective. Apple promised the US government investments of 600 billion US dollars in the USA. These funds are to support TSMC and other chip manufacturers, among others. Apple also recently announced that as part of its US investments, it will assemble the Mac mini in its own country. assemble the Mac mini in its own country. Apple is also considering working with Intel as a manufacturing partner. With Apple Silicon, Apple parted ways with Intel as a supplier almost six years ago – this time, however, Intel would manufacture Apple's own chips, and Apple would not use Intel's x86 chips.

This is how an invasion would affect things

The effects of an economic failure of Taiwan are quantified in a confidential industry report. According to this, US gross domestic product would fall by eleven percent – twice as much as during the financial crisis in 2008. China would also suffer massively from the effects. However, at least since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, skepticism has grown that a potential aggressor would be deterred by the economic consequences of an attack.

(mki)