These are independent reviews of the products mentioned, but TIME receives a commission when purchases are made through affiliate links at no additional cost to the purchaser.
IBM’s 2-nanometer (nm) chip technology puts 50 billion transistors, each the size of roughly five atoms, on a space no bigger than your fingernail. The landmark technology—the smallest, most powerful microchip ever developed—could quadruple the life of cell-phone batteries and slash the carbon footprint of data centers, among other things. Now the manufacturing competition is on. Samsung and the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. have announced plans to produce the chip by 2025, and in August, the U.S. and Japan unveiled a plan to build a joint research center focused on 2-nm tech.
More Must-Reads from TIME
- Why Biden Dropped Out
- Ukraine’s Plan to Survive Trump
- The Rise of a New Kind of Parenting Guru
- The Chaos and Commotion of the RNC in Photos
- Why We All Have a Stake in Twisters’ Success
- 8 Eating Habits That Actually Improve Your Sleep
- Welcome to the Noah Lyles Olympics
- Get Our Paris Olympics Newsletter in Your Inbox