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Supermicro said a third-party investigation found no evidence of malicious hardware on its motherboards. That is the company’s reported result—not an independently established finding that every board or supply-chain pathway was examined. It followed Bloomberg Businessweek’s 2018 allegation that unauthorized chips had been added to some Supermicro motherboards, a claim that Amazon and Supermicro disputed.
What Bloomberg alleged in 2018
On October 4, 2018, Bloomberg Businessweek published “The Big Hack: How China Used a Tiny Chip to Infiltrate U.S. Companies”. The report, based on interviews with corporate and government sources, alleged that unauthorized chips had been added to some Supermicro motherboards as part of a wider supply-chain attack. Bloomberg said the alleged campaign reached almost 30 U.S. companies; that is Bloomberg’s reported figure, not a separately verified count.
How Amazon and Supermicro responded
In statements published by Bloomberg, Amazon and Supermicro rejected key claims in the report. Steve Schmidt, then Amazon Web Services’ chief information security officer, said Amazon had never found modified hardware or malicious chips in Supermicro motherboards in Elemental or Amazon systems. Supermicro said it had never found malicious chips and had not been contacted by a government agency about the allegations. These are the companies’ statements about their own findings and communications.
What Supermicro said its investigation found
Supermicro later said it hired an independent investigations firm to examine a representative sample of its motherboards. In its 2021 annual report, the company said the sample included the type shown in Bloomberg’s report, boards purchased by companies mentioned in the report, and more recently manufactured boards. Supermicro also said functional tests were performed and that the firm found no evidence of malicious hardware.
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In a February 12, 2021 statement, Supermicro repeated that it had never found malicious chips, including after engaging a third-party security firm to conduct an independent investigation. The statement also cited public officials who, according to Supermicro, had said they had seen no evidence supporting the 2018 allegations. The investigation conclusion is described in Supermicro’s filing and statement; it is not a direct quotation or report from the investigation firm.
What the available evidence does—and does not—establish
| Source | Claim or position | Evidence described | What it establishes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bloomberg Businessweek, October 4, 2018 | Alleged unauthorized chips on some Supermicro motherboards and a wider attack. | Reporting based on interviews with corporate and government sources. | What Bloomberg reported, including its attributed “almost 30” figure—not an independently verified count. |
| Amazon and Supermicro statements published by Bloomberg | Both companies disputed claims about malicious or modified hardware. | Attributed company statements about their own findings. | Each company’s stated position, not a resolution of the underlying dispute. |
| Supermicro’s 2021 annual report and February 2021 statement | Supermicro said an independent firm found no evidence of malicious hardware. | Supermicro’s description of sample-based testing, including functional tests. | The company’s reported investigation result; the sources do not include the firm’s full report or establish that every board or pathway was tested. |
The key distinction is between an allegation, a company denial, and a company’s account of an investigation. The available sources describe Supermicro’s sample and the tests it said were conducted, but do not include the investigator’s full report. They therefore do not show that every motherboard, production run, or possible supply-chain route was examined, and they do not independently settle every claim in Bloomberg’s original reporting.
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Why the dispute remained contested
VICE reported on October 9, 2018, that security expert Joe Fitzpatrick considered the described scenario theoretically possible but impractical, saying it was “not scalable” and “not logical.” That was Fitzpatrick’s technical assessment of the scenario, not a forensic finding about the specific boards in question. VICE also reported that Bloomberg stood by its story.
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How to describe the outcome accurately
- Bloomberg alleged in 2018 that unauthorized chips had been added to some Supermicro motherboards.
- Amazon and Supermicro publicly disputed the reporting.
- Supermicro later said an independent firm tested a representative sample, performed functional tests, and found no evidence of malicious hardware.
- The investigator’s full report is not included in the cited materials, so the finding should remain attributed to Supermicro’s account rather than treated as universal proof that tampering never occurred.
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