A series of strategic technology initiatives were recently announced in Hanoi by the Vietnamese Prime Minister, leaders of the world's top tech firms, including Meta and NVIDIA, and Vietnamese corporations, enterprises, and organizations.

The initiatives involve human resource development, high-quality engineer training, helping Vietnamese enterprises expand their international connections, and building open-source Vietnamese-language datasets to serve artificial intelligence research. One highlight is a startup incubation initiative aimed at helping semiconductor startups participate in the global supply chain.

A “unicorn startup” is a privately-held startup company valued at over 1 billion USD. There’s a very small number of these worldwide. But according to Nikkei Asia, the number of AI unicorn startups is increasing rapidly because giants like Nvidia and Google are pouring large amounts of capital into promising startups. Vietnam is emerging as an attractive destination for these “tech eagles”.

Nvidia Corporation, for example, has established an R&D center and an AI data center in Vietnam, which aims to develop technological platforms so that Nvidia and its partners can foster AI initiatives here. Researchers and startups can use this infrastructure to develop AI applications for healthcare, education, transportation, and finance.

Michael Kagan, Nvidia’s Chief Technology Officer, said, “We’ve announced partnership and Nvidia is actively investing in Vietnam’s future. We opened our office in Hanoi and now we are growing this team to become a leading R&D center in Vietnam.” 

“We’re investing in Vietnam because we believe in the ambition of the Vietnamese government and we are particularly aligned with the national strategy on the AI development in this decade. And we are committed to be a long-time partner of Vietnam,” said Kagan.

Google has confirmed the establishment of Google Vietnam to support Vietnam’s digital transformation and coordinate with Vietnamese partners to develop cloud computing infrastructure and game apps. Last year, Foxcom, an Apple supplier, announced an investment of 80 million USD in chip manufacturing in Bac Giang province. Meta plans to invest 1.5 billion USD to expand the production of virtual reality devices in Vietnam.

Many of the world’s leading technology corporations say Vietnam has advantages to become a reliable destination and long-term partner – a young population, a spirit of hard work, creativity, an aspiration to rise, strong commitment from the Government and, most importantly, the enthusiasm of Vietnam’s technology community.

But to master technology and build its own tech industry rather than being just a place for large foreign companies to do business, Vietnamese tech enterprises need to make a greater effort to stand on the shoulders of giants and affirm their position on the global technology map.

Cao Anh Tuan, CEO of the Genetica Biotech Company, said, “Vietnam must make the most of the resources of the world's leading engineers and AI experts who have come to Vietnam to develop international-class technology products to serve the Vietnamese people and reach out to the world.”

Vietnam, with innovative thinking and a creative approach, plus investment from the world's tech giants, is expected to make big leaps in technology and innovation.