I worked in Apple HW for several years, and it's not nefarious like that...but I understand how it could look that way.
It's more like placing an order for N units of whatever, but the total global capacity (emphasis: total _global_ capacity) is < N.
That leaves open the speculation that shady business was going on, but it's just that they ordered early because they're at the moment first to need whatever, and businesses expand footprints to try filling as much capacity as Apple would like to order, when Apple needs more than is available.
Unless you were involved with negotiating the deals, what happens in face to face meetings (i.e. no email and paper trail) during contract negotiations is a not-so-subtle battle of wills based on perceived leverage -- of which a trillion dollar company has a lot of.
I have been on the software side of things for most of my career, but over the last handful of years I have been deeply involved in the bizdev stuff. To say the wool has been pulled back from my naive eyes is an understatement.
Except both Tim Cook and Jeff Williams knows even with Apple's $200B capital it is still not be enough fund a future TSMC competitor ( Intel ) that is price competitive with TSMC's current offering.
They may have a better chance helping Samsung Foundry but they dont want their SoC IP to be known to their direct competitor, that goes the same to Intel.
On the other hand TSMC dont start building out a $20B 2nm GigaFab and then look for 2nm customers. That is just not how it works.
It takes more than just money though. Apple couldn't for example make self-driving cars with despite all the money in the world. It also takes special raw materials, talent, and culture, with the combination being too difficult to materialize.
