The cynic in me wonders about the plausibility of all this.

Firstly, why would you add a new chip to a board, rather than alter an existing one? That would be essentially undetectable.

Secondly, why Bloomberg? It's an odd organisation to get a scoop on something like this.

Thirdly, they talk of the PLA approaching plant owners and such; to do all this, a lot of people would need to know about it, from the top to the bottom. I imagine that would be very difficult to keep secret.

Finally, the timing is very suspicious - it comes with midterms approaching, and Trump and China arguing over trade tarrifs; it would serve the political narrative well for China to be painted as the 'bugbear de jour', and this also plays to the MAGA crowd.