Or they just don't actually have any compute access restrictions of significance? Chinese companies can just go use those GPUs in neighboring countries that aren't export-restricted, like Malaysia. Like ByteDance openly did: https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/gpus/chinas-byted...

and Tencent is rumored to have done via Japan: https://wccftech.com/china-tencent-gains-access-to-nvidia-bl...

And that's not even considering just smuggling the GPUs in by eg buying them in Singapore.

AI-specific chips also seem to be on the easier side to design & create relative to high performance CPUs & GPUs, so there's no particular reason to expect Chinese domestic designs to continuously lag behind. They have access to the same fabs, after all