Provided the ARM juggernaut is expected to streamroll Intel's business in the coming decade, this acquisition does make sense for Intel... this could be their Facebook+WhatsApp moment.
This is getting into fantasy chip designer territory, but what are the chances that Intel makes a hybrid x86-ARM chip?
So Apple Silicon is not the same as someone else licensing ARM IP.
Apple may have been a founding member, but they don’t own ARM, and I’m assuming that ARM still wants to make a profit off of its licenses to Apple.