How are other chipmakers keeping up with TSMC if their processes are just the best?
Somehow Intel has managed to remain competitive with TSMC in spite of
poorer technology

Intel has a lot of experience in designing CPUs. A &quot;stupid&quot; design using the fastest technology can be worse (performance wise) than a &quot;smart&quot; design using somewhat older (and slower) technology.
TSMC only does chip-making they do not design, they are a foundry , so whatever chips are made by TSMC are not designed by them. The chips are designed by Qualcomm, Broadcomm and many other &quot;fabless&quot; semiconductor companies.
SMIC is also a foundry, just like TSMC. SMIC concentrates on older technology nodes that are &quot;less interesting&quot; to foundries like TSMC. A lot of chips are needed in mobile phones, cars etc. Not all of these need to be made in the latest-and-greatest fastest technology.
Realize that making a &quot;simple&quot; chip which can be made (or is already an existing design) in for example 14 nm (or much older, larger feature size technologies) is much, much cheaper than using the latest technology node. I mean: very often there is simply no need to use the newest technology node.

... up with TSMC if their processes are just the best?

Are they &quot;the best&quot;? What is &quot;the best&quot;? For a Soc powering the latest and greatest smartphone, indeed using the smallest manufacturing node might be essential.
But how about a chip used in a pocket calculator or microcontroller in an espresso machine? For these applications the chip needs to be cheap. A simple microcontroller, when bought in large quantities, can be had for a few cents per chip. I guarantee you that these chips will be made in an &quot;ancient&quot; technology, like 0.35 um CMOS (just my guess). The (at the time very expensive) equipment needed for making such chips has been written off long ago so you don't need to pay a premium price because expensive equipment is needed. That allows for chips that are extremely cheap. In many applications &quot;cheap&quot; is much better than &quot;latest and greatest&quot;.