IBM Shatters the Nanometer Barrier: First Sub-1nm Chip Packs 100 Billion Transistors

IBM unveils the world's first sub-1 nanometer chip with its 'nanostack' 3D architecture, promising 50% more performance or 70% better energy efficiency — a leap that could reshape AI data centers and next-gen computing.

IBM has crossed a threshold the semiconductor industry has been racing toward for decades: the first working chip technology below one nanometer. Announced June 25 from IBM Research in Yorktown Heights, the 0.7-nanometer — or 7-angstrom — node packs nearly 100 billion transistors onto a chip the size of a fingernail, roughly twice the density of IBM's own 2nm design from 2021.

The secret is a new transistor architecture IBM calls 'nanostack.' Instead of laying transistors side-by-side on a single plane, nanostack vertically stacks and staggers nanosheet layers in a three-dimensional design, using different material combinations within each layer to optimize performance and power independently.

"We're not just making smaller transistors, we're reinventing how chips are built," said Jay Gambetta, IBM's Director of Research. The published results project up to 50% more performance or 70% greater energy efficiency compared to today's 2nm-class chips — numbers that matter enormously as the world's data centers struggle with AI's surging electricity demands. IBM also reports a 40% improvement in SRAM memory density, a gain the company's VP of semiconductors, Huiming Bu, called "something we haven't seen in decades."

The timing is significant. Taiwan's TSMC, the world's leading contract chipmaker, only recently began mass-producing 2nm chips — the current industry cutting edge. IBM's 0.7nm achievement puts the company roughly two full node generations ahead in research, though production remains several years away. IBM told CBS News it "sees a path to production in as early as the next five years."

For context: the 'nanometer' label no longer refers to any physical gate length. It's a marketing shorthand for transistor density. But the density jump here is real — and it signals that Moore's Law, long declared dead, may still have some life left in the third dimension.

Sources: IBM Research | CBS News