No, they used PowerPC chips immediately before Intel but made the mistake of teaming with IBM for the G5. The problem was never that IBM didn’t design powerful chips but that the company didn’t have the best history building powerful chips that didn’t use a lot of wattage.
Had Apple stuck with Motorola for the “G5” they might have done better.
Now, Apple did use an ARM in the Newton ... /showing age
If I remember correctly the Amiga with the 68000 CPU was the first “PC” to run 32 bit code.
Before the PowerPC they used 68000. Not sure of what to make of the ARM processor. I was thinking Apple was going to make their own custom processor.
I would see how the ARM preforms against the Intel Macbooks. Linux runs very well on the Rasberry Pi.
I think IBM wanted Apple to pay for the development costs of the G5. Jobs would have none of it.