Apple has alot of cash on hand, yet don't pay out much more dividends, and instead has an increasing "investments" account where it uses this cash, thoughts on this arrangement?

Not really answering. I'm adding more questions to this post for the gurus out there.

Are the investment accounts really referring to Investment company type investments, i.e they are investing for stock yield? Or are they investing in companies that can help with their growth? (e.g. companies can manufacture parts they need, companies that are working on future technology that can be added to their future release?)

If it's the 2nd, it would make sense, I think.

Asking cause I've read some US reports that highlighted how Apple was working on new AI & AR technologies. Also there are reports on how some big tech firms are using technology from smaller firms instead of competing with them (eg amazon)

I distinctly remember somewhere that Apple is having trouble reinvesting this sum of money into organic growth. Apple does stock buybacks occasionally(though I am not exactly sure why they are not spending more). Some people say Apple is amassing a huge sum of money possibly for a huge M&A(inorganic growth). At this point Apple is such a big conglomerate and doesn't exactly need to acquire anything to improve its core business operations.