Apple buys the CMOS from Sony but I'd be surprised if it wasn't considering building it themselves just like the 5G modems, the ARM processors, etc.

But it goes well beyond that. Apple has been investing for decades into video editing and post production software, codecs, image processing, AI, and electronics manufacturing. Plus, it's a brand already trusted by the video and photography industry which has been using their hardware and software products for decades.

They could indeed buy other companies, but I was referring to creating new products.