The company achieved the leap from 14-nm to 7-nm without the most advanced equipment due to U.S. curbs.
Canada-based research firm TechInsights declared last month that SMIC had made the jump from the 14-nanometer to 7-nanometer process to produce semiconductors after inspecting a sample chip extracted from a cryptocurrency mining machine (!)
https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/chinas-top-chipmaker-smic-7-nm-breakthrough