I might excuse it if it said Russians, but the message they are passing is that this is part of some state-sponsored plan. "A Finn builds minix clone" is different than "Finland builds minix clone". [not that linux was a minix clone]
My understanding is the project had at least to the level of state support as SpaceX. So, sure it's a private company, but not really a 100% private project.
PS: Intel is at 14nm and started with 65nm back in 2006. Which is not as bad as you might assume, but still far from bleeding edge.
