On April 1, 2025, TSMC, a Taiwanese company, announced the introduction of the world’s most advanced microchip: the 2-nanometer (2nm) chip. Mass production is anticipated to roll out in the second half of the year, and TSMC indicates it will be a meaningful advance in performance and efficiency – perhaps redefining the technology landscape.

Microchips are foundational to most modern technology, found in nearly every electronic device, from electric toothbrushes to smartphones, laptops, and appliances. Microchips are made up of layers and etching materials, typically silicon, which form microscopic circuits that house billions of transistors.

The transistors are effectively tiny switches, facilitating the current of electricity and making computers work. Generally, a chip will be faster and more powerful the more transistors it has. Because the industry consistently tries to fit more transistors into the same size chip, the result is technology that is faster, more powerful, and more energy efficient.

Compared to the last most advanced chip known as the 3nm chips, TSMC’s 2nm technology should deliver several important benefits. It will enable a 10%-15% increase in computer speed at the same power, or a 20-30% reduction in power at the same speed.

Moreover, the density of transistors in 2nm chips was improved by approximately 15%, relative to the 3nm technology, which means that we should expect devices to run faster, use less power, and perform even more complex tasks swiftly. TSMC's super advanced microchips are utilized by other companies in numerous devices. It makes Apple's A-series processors for the iPhone, iPad, and Mac.

It manufactures NVidia's graphics processing units (GPUs), which are used for machine based learning and AI applications. It makes AMD's EPYC and Ryzen processors that power supercomputers all over the world. It also manufactures Qualcomm's Snapdragon processors, which companies including Samsung, Google, OnePlus, and Xiaomi use in their phones.