I don't think M5 is looking for OEM partners, it's pretty clearly a B2C solution. Espressif has most everything you need if you're looking to OEM something.
This was going through my head. From a cost of acquisition standpoint Espressif had already captured (effectively) 100% of M5 stacks users, so this must be a play to remove some inefficiencies and the supply chain they already have in place.
Espressif's more recent dev kits (the SBOX series) are very popular with hobbyists and overlap with M5 stack's products. I wouldn't be surprised if they just eliminated their dev kits and pointed people towards M5 stack's line up.