I fully believe AI and DC is the actual end goal of Xe, to lower reliance on Nvidia for those scaled up projects. Even if you don't hit the same perf/part, you can use 10,000 of your own ICs and integrate them more affordably vs say 6,000 of your competitors ICs, and not rely on supply chain, delivery delays, potentially needless sections of die space for irrelevant feature sets, etc. I am extremely apprehensive that Xe will matter at the consumer level.
As far as this other stuff, people seem to often forget the true hidden value in many of these acquisitions and investments : stacking patents for upcoming paradigms. You can use them to bargain your way into new standards and partnerships, it's a hedge against being left behind, as so many of them are nebulous enough to be called up as things develop further. It's just a fact of modern corporate semiconductor development : you REALLY need a patent stable, and breed those horses strong.