Enlarge / Apple CEO Tim Cook speaks about the new Apple headquarters during a media event in Cupertino, California, on September 12, 2017. (credit: JOSH EDELSON/AFP/Getty Images)

On Thursday morning, Bloomberg published a bombshell story claiming that the Chinese government had used tiny microchips to infiltrate the data centers of Apple and Amazon. Apple and Amazon, for their part, responded with unusually specific and categorical denials. It’s clear that someone is making a big mistake, but 24 hours later, it’s still not clear whether it’s Bloomberg or the technology companies.

On Thursday afternoon, Apple laid out its case against the story in a lengthy post on its website. The post specifically disputed a number of Bloomberg’s claims. For example, Bloomberg says that after discovering a mysterious chip in one of its servers, Apple “reported the incident to the FBI,” leading to an investigation. Apple flatly denies that this occurred.

“No one from Apple ever reached out to the FBI about anything like this,” Apple writes. “We have never heard from the FBI about an investigation of this kind.”