This begs the question....
If the Moto G5 has become vaporware, and the G4 has hit it's ceiling, and the IBM Power4 desktop chip has been dismissed by Apple...
Then what is Apple's next move? If this is true, I hate to say it (because I've been against this idea for so long) - but it sounds like Apple is prepping itself for either designing and fabbing it's chip themselves (by way of AMD or Intel for manufacturing), or tapping one of the x86 makers chip designs.