George Lucas used Naboo, serving as pawns of Darth Sidious.
The prequel trilogy appeared to suggest the Trade Federation aligned themselves with the Separatists. The leaders of the galactic corporations were present in Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith. When he decided to revisit this era in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Lucas decided to switch things up a bit. He began subtly rewriting the relationship between the Separatists and the Trade Federation.
As noted by The Lore Master, Lucas intended to show the Trade Federation - and other galactic corporations such as the Techno-Union - as war profiteers. Rather than commit to either side of the war, they sold munitions to both, profiting from the conflict. This is why Lucas made a point of focusing on company senators in his political plot, stressing their continued influence in the Republic. Even the animators only really became aware of this idea in The Clone Wars season 4, specifically when they were working on the episode "Darkened World of Umbara." That was originally supposed to feature a Lucrehulk-class battleship, but Lucas had it replaced with a new design because he didn't want to give viewers the idea the Trade Federation had sided with the Separatists.
Lucas has always liked to pretend the Star Wars story came to him fully-formed, but this is a clear retcon. It's a good one, too; it adds another element into the galactic conflict, the idea of war profiteering. It also indicates the sheer breadth of Palpatine's influence because as Darth Sidious he isn't just orchestrating the Clone Wars; he is manipulating every single force in the galaxy to his advantage, including the supposedly neutral forces whose only goal was to make money. As Lucas told Dave Filoni when questioned about this, by the end of the Clone Wars they had finally picked a side. Unfortunately, they chose the Separatists, which meant their leadership was slaughtered by Darth Vader on Mustafar, and the corporation was then nationalized into the Empire.
Rian Johnson revisited this idea in Canto Bight. There, they realized there were still people profiting off of war, selling starfighters to Resistance and First Order alike. That was the first time such war profiteering had explicitly made its way into the Star Wars movies, but Johnson was only building on the foundation Lucas had laid.
