There are lots of very rich companies that claim to want to compete but choose not to take the risks Apple did, of investing in their own vertical integration.
Each individual risk Apple takes is small - they didn’t develop the M1 from scratch; they have years of iPhone and iPad processor development under their belt.
The individual risks are small now, but they weren’t when Apple was recovering from near death.
Apple started working with ARM in the 80s, eventually used in the Newton. I don't know that they did design directly, but they influenced the changes that became ARM6.
I would speculate that the Palo Alto (P.A. Semi) acquisition is what kicked off this round of the Apple semiconductor (r)evolution.
The risk of Apple deciding to design their own chips was massive.
Vertical integration is certainly contrary to mainstream management philosophy these days. Today, the more dependencies you can work into your business plan, the smarter you seem. You’re an expert juggler, woo! That free API you were using got retired? Not your fault, who could have predicted?
To their credit, Apple takes the time and invests the money to build the stronger house.