Tech giant Nvidia plans to set up entity, make Vietnam second home: CEO

Nvidia plans to establish a legal entity in Vietnam and make the country its second home, the U.S. chipmaker’s president and CEO Jensen Huang stated on Monday.

Speaking at a roundtable on developing the semiconductor and Artificial Intelligence (AI) and opportunities for Vietnam at the National Innovation Center (NIC) in Hanoi, Huang said that Vietnam meets all three criteria to catch up with the emerging AI wave, which are data, software workforce, and infrastructure.

Vietnam has decades of data digitalization, plans to train up to 50,000 highly skilled engineers by the end of this decade, and has a solid foundation of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), the CEO noted.

Nvidia is willing to set up strategic relations with Vietnam in the AI field, work with universities in the country to encourage new generations to engage in AI, improve manpower skills, and develop one million AI engineers, he added.

Huang said the tech giant stands ready to cooperate with Vietnamese partners to develop AI infrastructure, including supercomputers, data centers, and research and development centers.

This trip to Vietnam will certainly open up further visits, the CEO said, promising to “be back to the future home of Nvidia”.

For his part, Vietnamese Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung said Vietnam boasts huge potential to develop the semiconductor and AI industries, and called for Nvidia's investment.

He proposed the U.S. giant enhance R&D activities, carry out semiconductor and AI projects in Vietnam, and build R&D centers and labs at the NIC and high-tech parks.

The Vietnamese government is committed to creating favorable conditions for Nvidia, Dung stressed.

The minister expected Nvidia to facilitate conditions for Vietnamese engineers to engage in internships and work at the corporation, and help Vietnam develop incubators for semiconductor firms.

At a meeting with Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh on Sunday, Huang said Nvidia had plans to establish a base in Vietnam to attract talents from around the globe in the semiconductor and AI sectors.