For decades, the tech industry has relied on the ability of semiconductor companies to wring more power out of computer chips, making the smartphones that fit in a hand today more capable than the computers that filled entire rooms 40 years ago.
While some experts worry that era of increased miniaturization is ending, IBM is saying not so fast.
The big tech company on Thursday released details of its next advance in chip manufacturing technology, which it says could keep that innovation going for another 10 years.
Using a novel approach to making smaller transistors that act as tiny switches in microprocessors and other chips, IBM said, the new production process can squeeze nearly twice as many transistors on a fingernail-size chip as the last technology it introduced in 2021. That will offer 50 percent greater computing performance and 70 percent better energy efficiency, the company said.
$IBM unveiled a 0.7nm “nanostack” 3D transistor design which it calls the first sub-1nm chip technology.
— Shay Boloor (@StockSavvyShay) June 25, 2026
IBM says it could fit 100B transistors on a fingernail-sized chip, reach production within ~5 years and deliver up to 70% better efficiency versus 2nm. pic.twitter.com/psH3RxKGmC
