US chip giant NVIDIA aims to set up centre in Việt Nam

Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính and President cum CEO of Nvidia, Jensen Huang. — VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — Nvidia wishes to establish a base in Việt Nam as it views the Southeast Asian nation as its home, President and CEO of the US chip giant Jensen Huang told Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính at their meeting in Hà Nội on Sunday.

The base will attract talents from around the world to contribute to the development of Việt Nam’s semiconductor ecosystem and artificial intelligence (AI), and promoting startups, thus boosting digitalisation in the country, Huang said, stressing that the group is pleased to set up this partnership with Việt Nam.

He noted that Nvidia, which has already invested about US$250 million in Việt Nam, regards the country as an important market.

Huang held that that the good relationship between Việt Nam and the US has created favourable conditions and a foundation for cooperation in the semiconductor industry and AI.

The CEO also highly valued Việt Nam’s potential, great opportunities, and clear strategy, vision and approach, as well as its focus on infrastructure investment in semiconductors and AI, and human resources in these spheres.

Việt Nam is at an important moment in its development process, he said, adding that once it succeeds in semiconductors and AI, the country will be successful in the most crucial stages and areas of industry and technology.

Vietnamese people are excellent at math, and the country has software capabilities and a very good position to develop semiconductors and AI, he continued.

PM Chính emphasised that in their newly-established comprehensive strategic partnership, Việt Nam and the US have agreed to make science-technology and innovation a new and significant pillar.

Therefore, priority should be given to some areas of Việt Nam’s focus, especially semiconductors, the leader said, briefing the guest on the country’s personnel in the industry of some 6,000 engineers, with the number of high-quality engineers expected to increase to 50,000 by 2030, prioritising circuit design engineer training.

The PM asked Nvidia to set out a strategic vision on cooperating with and accompanying Việt Nam in building and implementing its national semiconductor strategy and developing the semiconductor ecosystem in all the three stages of chip factory design and construction, packaging, and testing.

He also suggested the group concentrate on cooperation in infrastructure: building training facilities and research, development and design centres; developing semiconductor chip and AI products; and building big data centres along with high performance computing and semiconductor engineer training in Việt Nam.

Chính thanked the Nvidia official for his assessments and strong commitments, saying Việt Nam will establish a working group to put in place and push ahead with co-operation agreements and contents between the two sides, which will be headed by the PM himself.

During his trip to the US in September, the PM visited the Nvidia headquarters and invited Huang to visit Việt Nam as soon as possible. — VNS