IBM Announces Powerful New Sub-1 nm Chip Design

IBM has set tech tongues wagging with the announcement of a new chip design. The US-tech company has said the new design will enable manufacturers to pack 100 billion transistors into a single silicon chip the size of a fingernail.

Chips are measured in nanometres, one billionth of a metre. The current standard size of a chip is around 2nm. But once the new chip has been manufactured, it will measure 0.7nm, making it around a third of the size of most current models and the first sub-1nm chip announced to the market.

The New Chip Design

Current transistors are fitted horizontally along the chips. Rather than trying to fit yet more transistors to chips in this way, IBM’s new design incorporates multiple sheets of transistors on top of one another.

It follows a NanoStack design already being explored by other manufacturers, but IBM has apparently come up with a way to layer more stacks and, therefore, generate more power.

IBM’s Nanostack Makes AI Scaling A 3D Problem

IBM’s sub-1 nanometer chip announcement is easy to misread. The headline sounds like a smaller transistor story. The more useful signal is that AI hardware scaling is becoming a stack design problem.

IBM says its new 0.7 nm, or 7… pic.twitter.com/ucKgXLJDyW

— Daniel Ball (@dball1126) June 25, 2026

After tests, the company said the new chips will be 50% more powerful than their existing 2nm chips. What’s more, they will also be 70% more energy efficient, which could mean greatly improved battery life for power-hungry devices like mobile phones and laptops.

Greater energy efficiency could also help overcome some of the main complaints regarding AI development.

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Processor Shortages

The industry has been suffering from a microchip shortage for more than five years. Most of us think of microprocessors as being used in home computers and laptops, where they are used in CPUs and GPUs. As 5G internet has improved, users have become increasingly dependent on more powerful processors.

We stream and download content every day, requiring processor power. We also game online, and even industries like iGaming have become more processor-dependent. From live casino games to the latest video slots UK players can play, advanced features and improved visuals, both of which aim to improve immersion and enjoyment, require processing power.

However, computers only account for a very small percentage of microprocessor demand. In fact, 98% of processors are used in embedded control applications. They are found in appliances, cars, and mobile phones. Even modern doorbells, toothbrushes, and wearables use them.

Most recently, the advance of AI technology has seen a huge increase in demand for chips, especially in the hyperscale data centres that AI agents rely on. There has been some pushback against AI, including in its energy consumption.

A single AI query uses ten times as much power as a simple web search, and training an AI model can use as much power as thousands of homes.

Some companies have taken steps to reduce energy consumption, but improved chips like IBM’s new chips could go a long way to helping solve the issue.

However, while the new chips could be hugely beneficial across the tech industry, there is still some way to go before they will hit the market. IBM has said it would take around five years to start production, and they haven’t announced a manufacturing partner yet.