IBM says it has built the world's first sub-1nm transistor technology at the 0.7nm (7-angstrom) node, The Next Web reported on June 25, 2026. The technology, called nanostack, is a three-dimensional nanosheet transistor architecture that packs roughly 100 billion transistors onto a fingernail-sized chip, according to IBM. The company says density roughly doubles, performance improves by up to 50%, and energy efficiency improves by up to 70% versus its 2021 2nm chip. This article organizes the facts on the basis of The Next Web's report and IBM's stated figures.

What Happened

IBM presented the nanostack transistor, corresponding to a 0.7nm (7-angstrom) node, as a research milestone at VLSI 2026. The company describes it as the industry's first three-dimensional, nanosheet-based transistor architecture, extending logic scaling into angstrom-scale territory. Jay Gambetta, director of IBM Research, said, "With our new nanostack architecture, we're not just making smaller transistors, we're reinventing how chips are built."

What 0.7nm Actually Means

The 0.7nm figure is a generation label rather than a physical dimension. No specific part of the transistor literally measures 0.7 nanometers; the name follows an industry convention for the node that comes after 2nm. IBM says it raised density at this generation by stacking nanosheets vertically into a three-dimensional structure. The shift reflects chipmaking moving upward as flat scaling nears its limits.

The Numbers Behind the Gains

Nanostack integrates roughly 100 billion transistors onto a single fingernail-sized chip, IBM says. The company adds that density roughly doubled compared with the 2nm chip it announced in 2021. Performance rises by up to 50% and energy efficiency improves by up to 70%, while SRAM, the on-chip memory, scales by 40%, the company says. Key equipment makers Lam Research, Tokyo Electron, SCREEN, and ASML took part in developing the process.

What to Watch

IBM's figures are a research-stage result, and a path to mass production is estimated at five years out at the earliest. The stated performance and efficiency gains rest on IBM's own materials, and independent production validation has not yet occurred. Whether a lab demonstration translates into manufacturing yield and cost will depend on the equipment ecosystem and process maturation. The 0.7nm label denotes a generation rather than a physical size, and should be read that way.

Summary

IBM unveiled nanostack, a three-dimensional nanosheet structure at the 0.7nm generation, claiming roughly double the density and up to 50% more performance and 70% better efficiency than 2nm. It is a research result that packs about 100 billion transistors onto a fingernail-sized chip, yet mass production is projected to be five years away at the earliest. ASAP organized this on the basis of The Next Web's report and IBM's stated figures, without speculating about production validation.

Sources: The Next Web