Azernews.Az

by Alimat Aliyeva

IBM has unveiled what it calls the “world’s first sub-1 nanometer chip technology,” describing it as a landmark achievement in the semiconductor industry, AzerNEWS reports, citing foreign media.

The company stated that the chip is based on a new architecture called NanoStack, which is described as the industry’s first known three-dimensional, nanosheet-based transistor design. According to IBM, the chip integrates nearly 100 billion transistors and can deliver up to 50% higher performance or 70% improved energy efficiency compared to its 2-nanometer node technology.

“With our new NanoStack architecture, we are not just shrinking transistors — we are fundamentally rethinking how chips are built to deliver significantly more power and efficiency,” said Jay Gambetta, IBM Research Director.

IBM added that it could begin mass production of the technology within the next five years, depending on manufacturing scalability and industry adoption.

Following the announcement, IBM’s stock rose by around 6% in pre-market trading, reflecting strong investor interest in next-generation semiconductor technologies.

Interestingly, if such sub-1nm designs become commercially viable, they could push semiconductor engineering closer to the physical limits of silicon. At this scale, quantum effects such as electron tunneling become increasingly important, meaning that future chip design may rely not only on classical physics but also on advanced quantum-level modeling.

Experts also note that innovations like NanoStack could significantly impact artificial intelligence development, enabling more powerful and energy-efficient AI systems that can run complex models directly on devices such as smartphones, autonomous vehicles, and edge computing systems — without relying heavily on cloud infrastructure.

If successful, IBM’s approach could mark a shift from traditional “miniaturization race” toward entirely new 3D chip architectures as the semiconductor industry approaches the limits of conventional scaling laws.