At the time, I read the Apple deal as OA strategically finding an alternative to MS as the sugar-daddy, in terms of free cash flow and datacenter capabilities:

At the time, I read the Apple deal as OA strategically finding an alternative to MS as the sugar-daddy, in terms of free cash flow and datacenter capabilities: it didn't need to be true, it just needed to be a compelling negotiation point with MS. The fact that Apple was outright investing in OA was in line with this view: if OA was just going to be some pluggable commodity, why invest in them? Apple doesn't do random VC for the hell of it. So Apple withdrawing would seem to be bad news for OA, even if the rationale was something like "the valuation is now too high for our taste" rather than "we are losing faith in them as an organization" or "we think they are completely replaceable".