Setting aside the political side-effects of throwing support behind Intel and its US government-backed investment, we've seen movement on modem chip development and low-end SoCs for sub-MacBook Air and iPhone Air / SE / other models.
Perhaps this is the classic low-end / high-performance bifurcation problem (i.e., Srouji is focused on high-performance chips while the greater executive class is focused on service of the Walmart demographic, e.g., Made-In-USA, inexpensive, wider market acceptance).
Asking out of genuine curiosity because I know very little about chip manufacturing and Apple's internal processes and politics.