I think there is designed, and then their is DESIGNED.
And, as far as I know, no one here knows, they just spout either pro or anti Apple talk.
I an unsure if Apple REALLY deep deep down design the real guts of the chip
Say I want to build a car.
I could spec some nice wheels from USA Wheels inc, perhaps asking for them to cut a fancy shape in the alloy
Buy and Engine in, with my own gearing choices and CC
Spec the leather grade, the instruments from the instument makers
etc etc etc....
and totally legit I could sell it as my own custom, own designed car.
but really it's not MY own fabrication of car. I am reliant on others tech that build the guts on the dashboard instruments, the skills of the wheel makers who know how wheels need to be make, the engine makers who know how to make the engine based upon my customisation requests.
I do wonder if this is more what Apple do with their chip
Do they really have the people and the time to honestly design the chip from the ground up totally from nothing, from scratch, how it all works, the CPU and GPU cores, the memory, everythings from zero ground up.
Or are they more tweeking, speccing and requesting customisations from those who are doing it from ground up,
I think many here think they do it from nothing, but I am guessing this is not in reality the case