The announcement comes amid a race between organisations to build semiconductors that can handle increasingly demanding AI workloads.

Multinational technology giant IBM has announced the creation of what it claims is the world’s first ​technology capable of producing chips smaller than one nanometre.  

According to IBM, the chip has a transistor architecture of 0.7 nanometres and can hold nearly 100bn transistors on a “fingernail”-sized surface, achieving roughly double the density of its 2-nanometre chip unveiled in ​2021. 

In order to create the chip, IBM reportedly developed a new transistor design called a nanostack, which lays transistors on top of each other in three dimensions, rather than the standard method of laying them flat, effectively fitting more into the same amount of available space.  

Commenting on the achievement, Jay Gambetta, a director of IBM Research, said, “With our new nanostack architecture, we’re not just making smaller transistors, we’re reinventing how chips are built to deliver ​dramatically more power and ​energy efficiency.”

According to IBM, the new nanostack technology will also be capable of shrinking a type of memory circuit called SRAM by 40pc when compared to its previous chip technology. Production is expected to begin within the next five years and the organisation has yet to name a manufacturing partner for this technology, if there is one. 

IBM’s announcement comes at a time when many organisations all over the globe are racing to become the most prominent name in the manufacturing of advanced chip technology and artificial intelligence. 

In late May, leading chipmakers Micron and SK Hynix both surpassed $1trn in market value. Global semiconductor company Infineon Technologies announced earlier in June that it is set to open a new €5bn chip factory in Dresden, Germany, representing Infineon’s single largest investment. Last month, Analog Devices announced it was acquiring AI power delivery provider Empower Semiconductor in a deal valued at $1.5bn.

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