Huawei and SMIC quietly rolled out a new Kirin 9000C processor.
Chinese foundry SMIC may have broken the 5nm process barrier, as evidenced by a new Huawei laptop listed with an advanced chip with 5nm manufacturing tech — a feat previously thought impossible due to U.S sanctions.
You always have low yield when developing new processes. You can't make a 7nm process by just running 14nm at high throughput/low yield. This is just R&D and process development.
The fact they didn't do it perfectly and better on their first try is because their ideology told them not to.