The richest and most powerful American companies, some of whom are critical to national security and/or make their operational security as a critical selling point (the CIA among others), would be found not to be in fundamental control of the essential infrastructure powering their core business. It would trigger expensive large-scale review of every server in the world, and investors would run for the hills. This would be massive, and have heavy repercussions in the markets. FAANG are not protecting the Chinese, they are protecting their own finances - and the authorities will let them get away with it because the alternative is unpalatable.

If you keep it as a denied rumour, there is an official excuse for people to just get on with business as usual - nobody wants to deal with a market crash, not even most traders, and after all newspapers say many things, not all of them true. Maybe Supermicro is compromised, and maybe if you really care about hardware security you should buy elsewhere <wink-wink>; but it's not official, so most people can just pretend nothing is happening and go about their day, until a solution can be found.

> I don't see why they would risk it when they have so little to gain.

They have everything to lose, though.