TRANSISTORS Final transistor count update of 2025

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Transistor count is a critical factor for mainstream media and tech enthusiasts to judge levels of miniaturization in the semiconductor industry. The year 2025 marked the record-breaking launch of the highest transistor count ever recorded in a commercial chip. This article lists current record-holding chips and describes their importance in brief.

Transistor count directly refers to the number of transistors on a single chip. Most people think that transistor count means the total number of transistors manufactured on Earth. Do not worry! We have a number for that “13 sextillion”. 13 followed by 22 zeros - larger than the number of galaxies in the observable universe.

Transistor count indicates the processing and storage capabilities of a chip. More transistors on a chip indicate that they have gotten smaller. For example, 1 billion transistors on a chip size X vs 2 billion transistors on a chip of the same size X indicates smaller transistors.

Highest transistor count

In 1947, there was only a single transistor - the point-contact transistor. It was not even a bipolar junction transistor. In 2025, billions and trillions of MOSFET transistors are embedded on a chip.

The table lists the highest transistor count in different categories for December 2025. The current status of the transistor count clearly shows that memory chips have scaled faster than logic chips. In late 2024, NVIDIA broke a year-long record set by Advanced Micro Devices with its 153 billion-transistor GPU chip. The NVIDIA record has not been broken as of December 2025.

Forbes and various other sources claim that WSE-3, by Cerebras Systems, an American AI company, holds the record of 4 trillion transistors. The WSE-3, although larger in size, is a wafer-scale accelerator. The design transforms a complete 300-mm wafer into a single processor, which significantly enhances performance.

Apple introduced the new M3 Ultra chip on March 12, 2025, breaking its own record. The M3 Ultra chip is commercially available in the MacBook series. It is an SoC (System-on-Chip) based on TSMC 3-nm process.

By transistors, does it mean all types?

All transistors, especially in terms of transistor count, are MOSFETs. MOSFETs are smaller in size compared to BJTs and other transistor types. Hence, the MOSFET size is decreasing even further. Latest records show that MOSFET size has become smaller than a virus cell.

Will records keep on breaking every year?

Moore’s law is still holding true - doubling the number of transistors integrated on a chip every two years or even quickly. Apple sets a record every two years, comparable to Moore’s law timeliness.

Smaller chips would have increased manufacturing costs. From a consumer’s perspective, smaller chips would consume more power. While smaller transistors give rise to quantum tunneling and CPU bottlenecks, chip designers and manufacturers aim toward miniaturization.

The introduction of futuristic two-nanometer and one-nanometer node processes could indicate potentially smaller versions of today’s MOSFETs. So, “YES” designers and manufacturers are going to break records in 2026 or 2027 again!

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