I think A chips were quite considerably ahead of low-power Intel chips (e.g. the i7 in MBA) several years before M1 was released. But I guess they didn't believ

I think A chips were quite considerably ahead of low-power Intel chips (e.g. the i7 in MBA) several years before M1 was released. But I guess they didn't believe they could scale it up to compete with higher power i7/i9s shipped in pro macbooks.