That's a helluva rumor. Apple tried b2b with Xserve, back in the day, but didn't have the stomach for it.

That’s because they tried integration with the rest of their SW ecosystem.

If they just did motherboards with cpu/ram/pcie and let other OEMs build complete systems the story would be very different

	▲	scheme271 39 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		They tried it with various open systems that allowed licensed powerpc clones of their systems and they ended it because it reduced their profits as people bought the clones instead of mac hardware. I don't see them redoing that anytime soon.

With the Xserve, all Apple had to sell was repackaged Intel systems—with an Apple markup. They had nothing special to offer on the hardware side.

Now they have Apple Silicon.