No, they are not that far behind. You're thinking of Longsoon I guess, but they have a 7nm process at SMIC and Hisilicon designing ARM-based server processors on it[1]. Sure, ARM is western, but guess what, they have the IP anyway, as they required ARM to do business through a subsidiary in China.

China is serious about semiconductors. Hisilicon is competitive in many markets.

[1]https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/cpus/huaweis-new-...

It's also a "so what" situation. If China's economy is severed from the rest of the world's, competitors can't take its market share. Being five or even ten years behind on chips is irrelevant when your consumers can't go elsewhere. What did people use their smartphones for ten years ago? Recording themselves and watching cat videos. What do they do now? You don't need 2nm chips to do anything except take market share from the company using 3nm chips. The F-22 Raptor uses an i960 processor from 1988.

yes but AI, simulations and supercomputer warfare

China already has competing AI products that are used domestically.

As if China needs to worry about IP rights anyway.

They're down to 7nm albeit with low yield and questionable legalities [1].

[1] https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3256321/chinese-c...

> questionable legalities

"Questionable" is an interesting euphemism for massive IP theft over many years.

Doing technology transfers and then crying about it is really bad manners.

If you read Sun Tzu, theft of info is warranted and morally right to do so. Read the spycraft section of Sun Tzu. US did the same with Sputnik. They path and legitimize the act decades ago.

> Meanwhile, SMIC has increased its current 7 nm production capacity to make more Kirin chips and AI GPUs, said two people familiar with the matter.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/02/china-close-to-shipp...

Nope. Loongson is building on 14/12nm nodes and competing on performance with first-gen Ryzen and Coffee Lake. Zhaoxin is still on 16nm AFAIK, but they're matching modern architectures on IPC. CXMT is making LPDDR5 dies in meaningful quantities. Underestimate Chinese industry at your peril, particularly when they've got a blank cheque from the Party.

Do checkout Dxomark which smartphone has best camera. Do checkout how well Kunlun vs Gorrilla best. Do check the number of Mate 60 (hint iPhone sales dropped 20%). And maybe also check the cpu size. They have already rumours seeing actual 2-3nm in used in Huawei engineering sample unit. Even AI GPUs ES sample now floating if you have connections to get it (definitely better than Intel Arcs). I think you truly live in Joe info bubble. I have friends directly in Chinese semicon. You will see 4-5 years down the road, TSMC become irrelevant. Did you know now 90% worldwide mid tier and low tier chip dominated by Chinese made? Used to be TI and EU foundry during Obama time. You can do the research. Helps a lot if you are strong in read Chinese simplified characters sources.