26/06/2026 03:42 AST
IBM unveiled new semiconductor technology Thursday that the company says could deliver computer chips with 50 percent better performance while dramatically lowering power consumption. The technology developed by IBM is not yet ready for industrial use, but the Armonk, New York-based company said it "sees a path to production in as early as the next five years." The breakthrough could mean a major leap forward as the industry races to cram more computing power into smaller devices, but as worries grow over the tech industry's huge energy needs.
Taiwan's TSMC, the world's leading chip manufacturer, has recently begun mass-producing "2-nanometer" chips, the current cutting edge of the industry. IBM's new "0.7-nanometer" technology would represent a dramatic step beyond that. The nanometer, an atomic-scale unit of measurement, doesn't refer to the literal size of chips or their components, but to how densely transistors - the tiny electronic switches that make up processors - can be packed together. The smaller the number, the more transistors can fit on a chip the size of a fingernail.
IBM's breakthrough packs nearly 100 billion transistors onto a chip that size - nearly twice the density of the 2-nanometer chip. More transistors mean faster and more powerful computing and can help drive advances like faster smartphones and laptops, more efficient data centers, better self-driving cars, and more capable artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT. IBM's new chip is projected to offer "up to 50 percent more performance, or 70 percent greater energy efficiency than IBM's 2-nanometer node chips," the company said. This is considered a critical advantage as data centers worldwide grapple with artificial intelligence's enormous power demands, with local communities expressing increasing worry over the consequences of the facilities.
Nanostack
IBM's breakthrough uses a new three-dimensional architecture called "nanostack," which stacks transistor layers on top of each other rather than arranging them in a single layer. "IBM's latest chip breakthrough marks a landmark moment in computing, pushing technology beyond the nanometer era to the scale of atoms," said Jay Gambetta, director of IBM Research. "We're not just making smaller transistors, we're reinventing how chips are built to deliver dramatically more power and energy efficiency."
The technology also delivers a 40 percent improvement in SRAM memory chips -- "something that we haven't seen in decades," said Huiming Bu, IBM's vice president of semiconductors. SRAM chips act like a processor's short-term memory and are a critical component in electronic devices from gaming consoles to laptops. IBM's technology isn't ready for mass production yet, with the company expecting to reach the manufacturing stage within five years.
Producing such chips is a highly complex process requiring advanced manufacturing equipment, deep technical expertise and billions of dollars in investment. IBM doesn't manufacture chips itself, instead licensing its designs to companies like Japan's Rapidus, with which it is working to scale 2-nanometer production. TSMC is currently developing "1.4-nanometer" technology targeted for mass production around 2028.
India AI investment
Meanwhile, e-commerce giant Amazon announced on Thursday an additional $13-billion investment by 2030 to expand its artificial intelligence footprint in India, months after declaring plans to invest more than $35 billion. The announcement was made following a meeting between company CEO Andy Jassy and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The $13 billion will target AI and cloud infrastructure in Mumbai and Hyderabad, the company said in a statement. "Amazon's cumulative investments in India from 2010-2030 stand at over $88 billion," the company said. Jassy said he was "excited" about the future. "Still early days for what we can build," he said in a post on X.
"By 2030, we plan to support 3.8 million jobs, enable $80 billion in ecomm exports, and bring benefits of AI to 15 million small businesses and four million government school students," he added. Modi welcomed the investment, adding that it would increase opportunities for the country's youth. "It shows the growing interest across the world to invest in India!" he said on X. Several global corporations have announced large investments in the world's most populous nation, which has more than a billion internet users. There has been a string of billion-dollar data centre announcements from tech giants like Google as well as domestic firms such as Reliance Industries.
AFP
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