So I ran into this. I want to clarify this seems to affect the new M1 (Apple Silicon Macs) specifically, and seems to affect Cocoapods / Carthage frameworks in a project. I'm a little bit surprised there is no legitimate response from Apple. I've spent a few evenings digging around on this. On stackoverflow there appears to be some indication that the "fix" is to target iOS 13.0. See: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/64916429/how-to-fix-ipa-processing-failed-in-xcode-12-2-with-mac-m1?noredirect=1&lq=1 I'd like to hear a response from Apple on the root cause and some work arounds.

I've found a solution or two that can work but there are many variables. Xcode 12.2 / M1 / Apple Silicon combination seems to introduce this problem. I can successfully distribute by using Rosetta mode on starting Xcode. Note however this is just a work around. You cannot edit the Storyboards in Rosetta, so you would only use this for distribution. We really need someone from Apple to identify the root cause. I will look to see if there is a bug filed on the apple radar.