STOCKHOLM — Three scientists won the Nobel Prize in chemistry on Wednesday for developing the world’s smallest machines, work that could revolutionize computer technology and lead to a new type of battery.

Frenchman Jean-Pierre Sauvage, British-born Fraser Stoddart and Dutch scientist Bernard “Ben” Feringa share the $930,000 prize for the “design and synthesis of molecular machines,” the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said.

Machines at the molecular level are 1,000th the width of a human hair and have taken chemistry to a new dimension, the academy said.

Molecular machines “will most likely be used in the development of things such as new materials, sensors and energy storage systems.”

Stoddart has already developed a molecule-based computer chip with 20KB memory. Researchers believe chips so small may revolutionize computer technology the way silicon-based transistors once did, the academy said.

It said the laureates’ work has also inspired other researchers to build increasingly advanced molecular machinery, including “a robot that can grasp and connect amino acids” in 2013. Researchers are also hoping to develop a new kind of battery using this technology.

Sauvage, 71, is professor emeritus at the University of Strasbourg and director of research emeritus at France’s National Center for Scientific Research. S

Stoddart, 74, is a chemistry professor at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.

Feringa, 65, is a professor of organic chemistry at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands.

Molecular machines are molecules with controllable movements, which can perform a task when energy is added, the academy said.

The chemistry prize was the last of this year’s science awards. The Nobel Prizes will be handed out at ceremonies on Dec. 10.