There seems to be a lot of denial in the semi industry of late.
There are many smart people out there who believe that they too can make breakthroughs in semiconductor manufacturing. But they don't realize that Intel's process lead is more than just smart people working on a problem. It's the result of huge multi-year, multi-billion dollar investments, strategic relationships with tools suppliers, huge networks of research (including at the university level), impeccably effective process development cycles - and also some of the world's top talent.
There's maybe one other company with the same kind of core competencies - and that's TSMC - but their goal is different from Intel's. Their goal is to make money as a foundry service accommodating many different kinds of product designs. Intel's goals are much more focused, and so they will always do better at reaching next-gen process nodes. And the fact that they also co-design their own products to their own process node, and build their own masks, etc all contributes to their leadership.
When a small process house speculates based on their limited data that they know better, you should always assume they are either naive, highly egotistical, or being coached on how to lie to the press.
Market Data 
Markets 
AI
