"The company was founded in November 1990 as Advanced RISC Machines Ltd and structured as a joint venture between Acorn Computers, Apple, and VLSI Technology."
All latest node tech from TSMC was co-financed by Apple who in turn had the first-user right.
But the ARM architecture was originally an Acorn internal project (it was originally the Acorn RISC Machine), with the first Acorn Archimedes systems released in mid-1987. As you noted Apple did invest in the project later, when ARM the company was founded, but they also bailed out in the late '90s when they had their own financial issues.
> The company was founded in November 1990 as Advanced RISC Machines Ltd and structured as a joint venture between Acorn Computers, Apple, and VLSI Technology.
The company was renamed to Advanced RISC Machines to placate Apple - the first ARM processor was the Acorn RISC Machine, which tells you it's true heritage.
Sure if we just ignore all the billions that the Tawiwanese government poured into TSMC, and all the stock investors' money, and ignore the other clients TSMC had, and the fact that they got to 20-nanometer without any funding from Apple as far as I know, then I guess you are right.
History of TSMC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fVrWDdll0g
ARM was born out of the BBC micro project, so if anything a BBC baby.