Apple CEO Tim Cook 'Slept With One Eye Open' After CIA Warned Him Of China Attack On Taiwan: Report

Last Updated:February 25, 2026, 16:15 IST

The briefing came in 2023, when the US was growing increasingly uneasy about China’s intentions toward Taiwan, on which America is heavily dependent for semiconductor chips.

Apple CEO Tim Cook was part of a classified briefing in July 2023 by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), after which he reportedly told US officials that he had been sleeping with “one eye open" following a dire warning that China could launch a military operation against Taiwan in 2027, which could severely disrupt Apple’s global supply chain.

According to a report by the New York Times, Cook, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Lisa Su of Advanced Micro Devices, entered a secure briefing room in Silicon Valley, while Qualcomm’s Cristiano Amon joined via video conferencing. Then-CIA head William J Burns and director of national intelligence Avril Haines warned them that China’s military spending could mean a move on Taiwan in 2027.

This classified briefing came at a time when US intelligence agencies were growing increasingly uneasy about China’s intentions toward Taiwan, which Beijing considers as part of its own territory and has long threatened to retake by force. A Chinese blockade of Taiwan, officials say, could choke the supply of computer chips and severely weaken the US tech industry.

US Companies Ignored Warnings

According to the NYT report, former US President Joe Biden offered financial grants worth billions to improve the domestic production of chips in order to reduce dependence on Taiwan. When that did not work, Donald Trump threatened billions in tariffs to essentially accomplish the same thing.

However, these efforts made little difference as US tech companies in Silicon Valley ignored warnings and stubbornly refused to shift where it gets most of its chips, which are used to power electronic devices and AI data centres. “The single biggest threat to the world economy, the single biggest point of single failure, is that 97 percent of the high-end chips are made in Taiwan," Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said last month at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

An investigation by NYT found that executives were so focused on winning in their hypercompetitive markets and maintaining big profit margins that they ignored the consequences of over-dependence on Taiwan. Now, even if they decide to move their sources, it will likely take a few years.

TSMC produces roughly 90 per cent of the world’s most advanced semiconductors. The reasons for this were purely business, as chips made in the US were 25% more expensive, along with higher material, labour and permitting costs. TSMC was widely considered better at building cutting-edge chips than American companies like Intel.

‘Sleeping With One Eye Open’

Given that Taiwan is critical to America’s economic survival, particularly at a time when artificial intelligence is taking off, Trump has used the threat of tariffs to bully tech companies to buy more of their chips from US factories. Before this, the Biden administration tried to convince tech companies to buy chips from American companies like Intel and Samsung.

In 2021, Admiral Philip S Davidson, then-commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, revealed that the armed services believed that Chinese President Xi Jinping wanted his army to be ready to take Taiwan by 2027.

By 2023, fears of a Chinese takeover of Taiwan grew after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, forcing intelligence officials to speak directly to Silicon Valley’s most powerful decision-makers. Most tech companies were still reluctant to buy American chips.

Then-US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo asked Burns and Haines to give a classified briefing to Apple’s Tim Cook, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, Advanced Micro Devices’s Lisa Su and Qualcomm’s Cristiano Amon. After the meeting, Cook told officials that he slept “with one eye open."

However, Apple committed $100 billion towards supporting chip manufacturing in the US after Trump threatened tariffs to force tech companies to buy US semiconductors. Lisa Su and Amon also promised to manufacture more chips in America.

Moreover, TSMC has announced plans to invest around $165 billion in the US, with land secured for at least five new fabrication plants in Phoenix, Arizona. These facilities are intended to reduce America’s dependence on overseas chip supplies. Taiwan has also committed to $250 billion in credit guarantees to help move semiconductor and technology manufacturing to America.

News world Apple CEO Tim Cook 'Slept With One Eye Open' After CIA Warned Him Of China Attack On Taiwan: Report

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