Though Bloomberg received strong denials in response to its first report, the publication kept investigating and released a second story about an unnamed major US telecom company discovering Super Micro's surveillance chips within its network. All major wireless carriers (including Verizon, our parent company) denied that they were involved, as did Comcast and CenturyLink.

All of this left Bloomberg on its own when it comes to this story, which it has stood by since publication. Dan Coats, the US director of national intelligence, told Cyberscoop that he's seen no evidence of the reported Chinese surveillance. "We've seen no evidence of that, but we're not taking anything for granted," Coats said to CyberScoop. "We haven't seen anything, but we're always watching."

Apple has vehemently denied that there is any truth to the Bloomberg story directly to the publication but also in a company statement and in a letter to Congress. "There is no truth in their story about Apple," Apple CEO Tim Cook said to BuzzFeed News in a phone interview. "They need to do the right thing and retract it."

It's not clear where things go from here. So far, Bloomberg has stuck to its reporting and apparently still stands by the story. However, it's getting harder to ignore these vehement and unambiguous denials that there is any truth to this story.