Apple ditched Intel, and it paid off

Back in college, we were always told that RISC architecture would be the future. It only took 20+ years to get there, but these chips blow Intel out of the water. They've taken the ARM architecture, that was looked down upon as low powered and not fit for daily computing, and customized and optimized it to meet their needs. They made a chip system with a massive speed boost with a much better power profile to greatly extend mobile battery life. Intel's chips of late are just tiny bumps in efficiency and power over the last and have been nothing to write home about for years. Between Apple silicon and the AMD Ryzen series, Intel needs to step up if they want to stay the powerhouse they have been.

What is interesting is back in In 2019 Intel considered Srouji, the man responsible for the M1 design, a candidate to be its next CEO. Srouji as well got his start at Intel working 13 years at Intel, designing chips at the company’s labs in Israel and Texas.

https://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2019/01/16/intel-ceo-candidates-johny-srouji-apple-aapl-intc.html

With that said I would argue Apple strength is in its brand (revenue) which makes it easy for Apple's HR in hiring of top individual's in their field. This article goes into detail about Apple's compensation.

He makes over $20 million a year and has a very large stock option.

What I really find interesting about Apple's brand is how out of touch its reality is with the message it promotes. Its products are made it sweatshops in China (labor is exploited), its CEO's makes x fold times more than the average working individual (income inequality) and it has zero minorities on its board (no diversity) yet somehow Apple has been able to discount its realities against conceptual possibilities and campaign contributions.

https://www.apple.com/leadership/

The irony of Socialist and Protest music on Apple Music - you can't make this shit up.
https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/socialist-and-protest-music/pl.u-dM6BcRAbNW