IBM Fellow and Chief Technology Officer of Systems Development Christian Jacobi joins WIRED to answer the internet’s burning questions about microchips. How small can we make a microchip? How was the first computer chip created? Why are there only a few chip makers in the world? Answers to these questions and many more await on Microchip Support.
*WIRED recommends:*
Watch more from WIRED | Tech Support:
#Technology #Science #Microchips
00:00 – Microchip Support
00:15 – 1+1 = 10
01:21 – Billions of times per second, you say?
01:56 – The microchip monopoly
02:48 – It’s not your computer, it’s Internet Explorer
03:15 – Why are data centers so big?
04:38 – I got billions of transistors…
05:42 – …but a switch ain’t one.
06:11 – It’s getting hot in here
06:35 – How microchips are made
08:39 – The dawn of the (micro)chip
09:32 – AI = better chips?
10:12 – Schrödinger’s chip
11:17 – Microchip gains
12:08 – The Angstrom Age and beyond
13:23 – Semiconductor supercycle: Peak or crash?
14:39 – They’re called microchips for a reason
15:18 – GPU vs CPU
16:27 – Chips need all the chefs in the kitchen
18:24 – Dennard Scaling is failing Moore and Moore
20:07 – Microchip design embraces imperfections
21:11 – Microchips in brains?
22:51 – A speck of dust never seemed so big
23:22 – How Christian became IBM’s CTO
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@TiberianHunter
May 19, 2026 at 3:56 pm
Christian, Nice well done ‼️ thanks for your time 🫶🏽
@barscagrdinc7290
May 19, 2026 at 3:57 pm
While some topics are explained very good, I believe some basic questions explained poorly. Kind of assumed people have pre knowledge about topics. For example when cpu and gpu differences explained, I would expect an explanation that covers many parallel calculations vs cpu is more generic etc. There are more examples like this.
@BREAKERisDEAD
May 19, 2026 at 4:08 pm
Explain the 6EQUJ5 Wow! Signal to me like Im 5 pls 🛸
@inmanis2924
May 19, 2026 at 4:12 pm
data centers have exploded bc the fake AI bubble needs to continue so nivida AND AI companies can continue enriching each other in an eternal cycle
@DotHacker99
May 19, 2026 at 5:23 pm
Its a catch 22 where they trade resources or stock for product and vice versa. That inflates the stock prices of both and if and when the bubble pops itll burst prices of everything to realistic levels
@tazimusics
May 19, 2026 at 4:50 pm
To be clear: The transistors and what not are so small, SO INCREDIBLY small, that they had to CREATE A SPECIAL TYPE OF LIGHT in order to have a wavelength small enough to etch the tiny little etchings that we need for these chips. Dear god man.
@BrankoDimitrijevic021
May 19, 2026 at 5:22 pm
Yup. “Extreme ultra-violet” is basically a misnomer: its so extreme that it’s almost X-rays. Bonkers.
@Michalos86
May 19, 2026 at 5:25 pm
A special kind of light source maybe. They did not create light that was not known already.
@tazimusics
May 19, 2026 at 8:29 pm
Well don’t you feel tough. As if I claimed such things.
@teoteo-s197
May 19, 2026 at 4:54 pm
Lmao AI isn’t being used to “make people more productive.” The average worker is more productive than anymore before. AI is being used to replace people in the pursuit of the billionaires’ greed.
@TheSkinnyZ
May 19, 2026 at 4:55 pm
Oh! Hi, German!
@TheSkinnyZ
May 19, 2026 at 5:02 pm
8:59 called it.
@TheSkinnyZ
May 19, 2026 at 4:59 pm
My favorite chips are the ones I can eat.
@PolygonStew
May 19, 2026 at 5:02 pm
thanks! I have been wondering about this. Taking C# and learning a lot
@PolygonStew
May 19, 2026 at 5:09 pm
yep Aliens
@TheSkinnyZ
May 19, 2026 at 5:14 pm
Interesting that he’s not gung-ho about putting chips in our brains, lol!
@DotHacker99
May 19, 2026 at 5:19 pm
Friendly reminder that al data centers often use up about if not more water and electricity than the surrounding towns to the point of towns people being forced to use low pressure water. Thats right if a data centers opens up near you you may be reduced to sponge baths along with air and noise pollution that damage your body.
@thegeicogecko
May 19, 2026 at 5:35 pm
11:14 I dont feel like he answered the question. Everyone is aware current technology relies on silicon, that wasnt what the question asked. Is there another alternative to silicon? Is there a particular reason we NEED silicon? How viable would alternatives like other semiconductors be if we were hypothetically forced to switch within the next X years? What is the reason silicon is better than other alternatives, and in what way would we be impeded if we didnt use silicon?
@thismakesmemad
May 19, 2026 at 5:46 pm
Those 5 year olds might be a little confused.
@Benjaminboedker
May 19, 2026 at 5:53 pm
Man, the more I learn the less I know 🫠
@cheese-crackers-q2k
May 19, 2026 at 5:59 pm
Corporations and Wall Street have only ever had the bottom line in mind. That will not change. The cost of human labor has always been a target for cost reduction programs. Corporations have scraped away at the labor force every way they know how in order to reduce that cost, with the exception of the most talented labor. AI will enable them to scrape more and more. They will target every job they can.
@Chiman1100
May 19, 2026 at 6:29 pm
What does causes imperfections in chips commonly? and what is done to normally prevent or minimize them?
@RaminM-xe2jl
May 19, 2026 at 6:47 pm
Eventually microchips will no longer be made with silicon 🤔
@jessietomich8043
May 19, 2026 at 7:21 pm
This is all stuff I know. What I like is this guy’s delivery. I think he could teach this to kids.
@68024
May 19, 2026 at 7:45 pm
AI may not replace people but it will devalue human labor
@geoffre5
May 19, 2026 at 8:50 pm
Did he saw IBM? was this filmed in 1996?
@dancingpeach6454
May 19, 2026 at 9:08 pm
That shirt is picking a fight with someone somewhere
@ahmed1a313
May 19, 2026 at 9:25 pm
3:09 also in the case of apple they were purposefully slowing down phones for what “battery longevity” lmao
@Timemachineultra
May 19, 2026 at 11:24 pm
Amazing
@rehustler
May 19, 2026 at 11:44 pm
Many people are already losing their jobs because of AI. I don’t like how he just glossed over this point as it demonstrates ignorance on his part.
@slickstretch6391
May 19, 2026 at 11:51 pm
Take a shot every time he explains how a semiconductor works. 😅
@A0A4ful
May 20, 2026 at 4:32 am
So, a semiconduc-tequila…
@slickstretch6391
May 20, 2026 at 12:03 am
I wouldn’t mind having a memory chip in my brain. I’m so tired of forgetting things…
@freshgino
May 20, 2026 at 12:22 am
Thanks for this.. was cool
@frankmendoza2771
May 20, 2026 at 1:39 am
My hat goes of to this guy. Can’t be easy taking such a deep and technical topic, and answer questions in a few sentences.
@Ajjssjskajskkjdjakjdjakjs
May 20, 2026 at 6:34 pm
it is after 20 years
@drskelebone
May 20, 2026 at 1:45 am
Except you can look at the circular deals, and see that a lot of the ai trend is chip companies paying data companies to buy more chips under the assumption that people will buy infinite data. But to break even, a ridiculous number of people would need to use ai for things that are better done a different way. Which is why you get people breaking Taco Bell by asking the ai drive-thru for 18k cups of water.
Everything is meaningless.
@ford24680
May 20, 2026 at 4:44 am
Something else to think about with making larger chips, the actual wafer will have defects on them that can cause a chip to be defective. If a wafer has, say, 12 such defects scattered throughout it, if you build 20 large chips, you may lose up to 12 of those 20 chips, vs if you fit 69 smaller chips, you still may lose 12, but the yield is significantly increased
@montmaro
May 20, 2026 at 5:43 am
19:30 The main problem is actually the heat. You can just use more power. But the packaging and cooling of the chip become more difficult. And cooling almost consumes more power than the chip itself.
@tangenquattro
May 20, 2026 at 8:00 am
Smoltek Nanotechnology will solve some of the power demand problem. Check them out 👑💥💯
@briangoldberg4439
May 20, 2026 at 9:03 am
Datacenter propaganda. We need to be building decent municipal infrastructure, not increasing everyone’s power bills to fuel digital assistants. We never asked for it
@mko505
May 20, 2026 at 10:08 am
I appreciated his response about the use of chips in the human body. It’s helpful, to me, to hear the experts highlight both the pros and cons they see with progress and possibility in tech. I’d love to hear more of this kind of discussion, because I think we tend to lean heavily into what is possible (vs whether it should be).
@karagi101
May 20, 2026 at 10:33 am
Of course it’s going to displace people. Hundreds of millions of people.
@simeik
May 20, 2026 at 10:44 am
I think the one question meant “Why does the transistors need to be smaller? Why can’t the microchip be bigger to fit more transistors?”
Just look at the cell phones. They got smaller and smaller until we started making them bigger again so we could have bigger screens :p
@bypha
May 20, 2026 at 11:27 am
kinda sad to not see a white board with bunch of logical gates drawn, or a bread board with some controllers and a bunch of wires
@ianthehunter3532
May 20, 2026 at 12:04 pm
I don’t think they know what that is, considering they captioned breadboards as “repboards”.
@zoiks6631
May 20, 2026 at 1:25 pm
Death to AI and the ghouls pushing it
@greedybat6123
May 20, 2026 at 2:29 pm
being positive about AI and wearing a shirt that says “think” is pretty funny
@lightlaserstarwars
May 20, 2026 at 4:06 pm
Think is his way of referencing his company, IBM.
@edgarfez4727
May 20, 2026 at 3:07 pm
Of course there’s a limit, you can’t go smaller than the light wave’s physical limit
@lightlaserstarwars
May 20, 2026 at 4:05 pm
Ever heard of electron beam lithography?
And which limit are you speaking of? The simple diffraction limit? Or do you allow phase shift masks and other advances?
We are currently making chips that break the simple limits or the wavelength of light.
@everything_LK_Banda
May 21, 2026 at 1:15 am
Assuming you talk about the “visible” light wave’s physical limit (or wavelength), this is not the limit. Visible light wavelength is roughly between 400-600 nm, we already have chips smaller than these.
@Kokilavp-h1k
May 20, 2026 at 4:19 pm
Semiconductors are truly the new oil 🛢️ interesting video
@liamduplessis8197
May 20, 2026 at 7:25 pm
I wonder how much of that knowledge worker productivity is actually just propping up and enforcing useless hierarchical structures that are now actively toxic to society.
We could use this technology is unbelievable ways. And the driving motivation seems to be answering emails and making incompetent middle managers seem like they have skills.
@JABEX71
May 20, 2026 at 7:33 pm
GOOD CIA INFORMATION
@eternyti
May 20, 2026 at 7:41 pm
bro is so smart and has “think” on his shirt, yet he thinks AI can’t displace him or his job. maybe not right now, but anyone who thinks AI can’t eventually replace them at whatever they do or are good at, is naïve or in denial.
@fredthebulldog529
May 20, 2026 at 8:07 pm
Lol these are mediocre responses. “What’s the difference between a CPU and GPU?”…… His effective answer was that one is for complex processing and another is for graphics. Haha no duh, that is obvious.
@michaeljames-u7e
May 20, 2026 at 9:12 pm
I am still trying to control that screen with my mind you know thought control tell paf I said what’s up thank you
@AtomicDimension
May 20, 2026 at 10:15 pm
Impressive 😮
@savannahnuxoll9931
May 21, 2026 at 1:13 am
Do an episode with a Soil Scientist or something related!
@Quaglietto
May 21, 2026 at 5:01 am
What a great dude 🎉
@grus.clausen
May 21, 2026 at 5:43 am
Im no hardware architect, but a 0 is definitely “low voltage” and a 1 is “no voltage”
@serloinz
May 21, 2026 at 6:23 am
“DickheadNL is asking..”
@stachowi
May 21, 2026 at 6:27 am
Electrical/Computer Engineer here… been studying this topic for 30 years and he does a great job explaining everything.
@wizzzzzy-y3x
May 21, 2026 at 7:27 am
no matter how much i learn about the computing world – it always seems to be some sort of witchcraft
@gustavoceladelosreyes5924
May 21, 2026 at 9:29 am
He first makes a point on how trillions are spent on wages, but then denies that AI is not meant to displace them. The only way this adds up is if you incorporate lies and hipocresy in the equation.
@yung_broccolini
May 21, 2026 at 12:30 pm
As an IC design engineer, I’m gonna point my friends and family to this video when they ask what I do lol
@Torpedex10
May 21, 2026 at 1:41 pm
14:30
@antallis20
May 21, 2026 at 4:14 pm
09:04 the captions should say “wire wrap boards”
@MatthewSuffidy
May 21, 2026 at 10:23 pm
I set my Ryzen 5900X to stay at lower than 80C air cooled. That when I get more concerned than usual.
@thomasheydrick3504
May 21, 2026 at 11:45 pm
CPU does all the math. GPU dies trig, and does a LOT of it.
@carlosarvizu7044
May 22, 2026 at 3:17 am
Doping? Not gate? UV wavelenght? I’m not sure those are clear terms for the general public. Electrical Engineer here.
@hellbenttrent
May 22, 2026 at 12:59 pm
Modern computer architecture is the scam of the century
@allstar0419
May 22, 2026 at 9:18 pm
I love how the motherboard on the table has no RAM
@DomesticatedDuck
May 25, 2026 at 11:20 am
Can’t afford it in today’s market 🥀
@matsetizar65
May 23, 2026 at 10:10 am
Ah I have the same copper coloured MBA M1.
@juliancapelli6870
May 23, 2026 at 10:44 am
Mmmm what kind of meth is he talking about at 16.24
@markokpiabhele4426
May 23, 2026 at 11:50 am
I like the video.
@Justin22139
May 23, 2026 at 5:46 pm
I try to remember that when I’m getting frustrated with my phone – that the only input these devices have is 0/1, or power/no power. The idea that manipulating an electrical circuit somehow translates to everything we can do on our devices is utterly amazing.
I know that’s probably an oversimplification but it’s not inaccurate.
@aryazeref
May 23, 2026 at 8:07 pm
I don’t think he is talking about 2nm in terms of its literal size, but rather its effective funtionality. 2nm nodes are not necessarily 2nm small but it works as if it’s 2nm small.
@1pcfred
May 26, 2026 at 2:13 am
The definition of nodes has changed over time. Now it refers to the smallest features. It used to be the width of parts. So it’s a bit smoke and mirrors today. Consumers can’t really kick the tires though. Chips are basically black boxes. So they can tell you whatever and you have to go with it.
@ronaldocost4
May 23, 2026 at 9:33 pm
This guy: FFS, don’t these people have Google or AI?
@ajayamgoth581
May 24, 2026 at 3:15 am
If transistor go to atom size wouldn’t that current transistor rules doesn’t apply right… There will whole new innovation to be done
@ItsCOMMANDer_
May 24, 2026 at 12:44 pm
3:11 the humble harddrive:
@amak1131
May 24, 2026 at 10:32 pm
Not even 5mins in and shilling AI as “making workers more productive” despite the layoffs. This has to be a corporate talking point as otherwise he seems pretty knowledgeable.
@1pcfred
May 26, 2026 at 2:23 am
Those laid off can go be more productive somewhere else.
@N-Tity
May 25, 2026 at 6:22 am
Very good. It is mind bending how many transistors and wires that are on modern chips.
@lohsolomon402
May 25, 2026 at 9:11 am
whosoever is responsible for check the experts in these talks deserves a raise
@quickSilverXMen
May 25, 2026 at 1:17 pm
Awesome 😎!
@realattaboy
May 27, 2026 at 5:28 am
10:00 well yeah dude it is gonna make you more productive which would also mean that less people are needed to do the job… smh
@j01HUNTER
May 28, 2026 at 8:23 am
Wait IBM still exists
@scotch-neat
May 28, 2026 at 5:51 pm
I like the t-shirt. Something worth remembering to keep AI evolving in the right direction.