For a myriad of reasons, I don't think Apple would ever want to sell their chips standalone. OTOH, Apple could consider releasing a line of Apple silicon cloud

For a myriad of reasons, I don't think Apple would ever want to sell their chips standalone. OTOH, Apple could consider releasing a line of Apple silicon cloud servers. Even if more expensive than x86 servers, they could eventually become VERY competitive if they are more power efficient, which is a real issue for cloud providers. It would pay off any upfront cost if, on the long run, the server uses ie. 50% less energy than x86 alternatives for the same bang. Now, the thing is that the typical cloud or datacenter machine today is more of a custom built piece of witchcraft than an off-the-shelf blade. So, meh, maybe not. But an ARM-based cloud, Apple or not, sound like the way to go, at least for the long term.