On the other hand, servers are running more GPU / ML workloads these days and semiconductor designs are more automated. It’d be interesting to see if they could cost-effectively sell those designs with, perhaps, capacity tweaks similar to what they’ve done with the iPad X-series releases where the chip design is very similar but they’ve added extra GPU cores, cache, etc.

That’d also be consistent with their past history of trying to pick some edge for a particular market: optimized for media processing, ML, VR/AR, etc. rather than just competing with x86 for the generic workloads. I still don’t see it as a high probability but I’d expect a niche if it happens at all.

I just want Apple to team up with Nintendo and make a home console + Apple TV.

I’ve always felt Apple and Nintendo have a common thread that rarely gets appreciated.

That would be awesome, but it’s difficult to see how that would fit in with Nintendo’s vision, which seems to be merging console and mobile gaming. How do you do that without competing directly with iPhone/iPad?

Most of Nintendo's hardware obsession ends up being accessories more than core system tech. I would like to believe that Nintendo bringing ideas for hardware with Apple executing would work really well. Plus, Apple could use a bit more, "Friendly for children aesthetic" and not so much "Future Techno Glass World".