No doubt Apple can negotiate some form of super-exclusivity deal with a fab, in the same way that their license from ARM is probably more permissive than any ot

No doubt Apple can negotiate some form of super-exclusivity deal with a fab, in the same way that their license from ARM is probably more permissive than any other of their partners. (I wouldn't put it past them to go with Intel – after all, during the PPC era, it also would've been unexpected to go with Intel!)