a few points: 1. this speaks nothing to China's R&D. 2. SMIC's 7nm was developed in 2020, largely made possible by former TSMC engineers, like Mong Sang Liang

a few points: 1. this speaks nothing to China's R&D. 2. SMIC's 7nm was developed in 2020, largely made possible by former TSMC engineers, like Mong Sang Liang, former head of TSMC's R&D, and now co-CEO of SMIC. China already had all the tools and lithos required for 7/5nm at this point. 3. main challenge was not of "if," but how fast they would improve efficiency, cost-effectiveness and yield rates at scale without ASML's EUVs. 4. most key executives at TSMC hold advanced graduate degrees from US universities and were trained at various US tech companies before returning to Taiwan (eg, Morris Chang, C. C. Wei). And they still send their kids to US universities. 5. US sanction was too little, too late. the most cutting edge 3nm would be difficult without EUV's, but Mong Sang Liang stated that 5nm was almost complete back in 2020.