Vietnam's leading industrial park developer KBC joins data center race with staggering $2 bln investment

The Kinh Bac City Development Holding Corporation (HoSE: KBC) has signed an MoU with Accelerated Infrastructure Capital (AIC) and major Vietnamese lender VietinBank to develop a large-scale data center project in Ho Chi Minh City.

The project, with a total estimated investment of nearly $2 billion, will cover about 10 hectares in the Tan Phu Trung Industrial Park. It will be an AI-focused data center campus with a designed IT load capacity of up to 200 MW, capable of operating around 100,000 GPUs.

The project is expected to enhance HCMC’s digital infrastructure, positioning the city as a regional hub for data centers and artificial intelligence.

Under the MoU, the three parties will leverage their respective strengths to jointly implement the project’s initial phase and consider expansion to other locations nationwide in subsequent stages.

KBC, with extensive experience in urban area and industrial park development, views this data center project as a strategic step in its plan to upgrade the value chain of industrial parks, from traditional production infrastructure to digital and high-tech infrastructure. This aligns with the company's vision to expand its industrial ecosystem and attract high-tech and digital service investments in Vietnam.

AIC, a data center and digital infrastructure investment and development platform based in London and Hong Kong, will contribute its international expertise in data center development and operations, with a founding team experienced in managing multi-billion-dollar hyperscale projects worldwide.

Meanwhile, VietinBank, one of Vietnam’s largest commercial banks, will act as the financial partner, providing financial advisory services, project financing, and capital mobilization to ensure sustainable and effective project implementation.

The total investment, $2 billion, will be sourced from equity contributions and commercial loans, with equity funded jointly by KBC, AIC, and their partners.

Speaking at the MoU singing ceremomy on October 28, KBC chairman Dang Thanh Tam said as a member of Saigon Invest Group, KBC is committed to contributing to the development of Vietnam’s digital infrastructure.

“Data centers are a key part of upgrading the industrial value chain, enabling Vietnam to stay ahead of emerging manufacturing and technology trends. We are honored to collaborate with both domestic and international partners on this project, which will help promote investment, innovation, and sustainable development,” he noted.

Vietnam’s growing data center race

Previously, several major corporations including Viettel, CMC, FPT, and Microsoft had announced plans to invest in Vietnam’s data center sector, most of them located in HCMC.

In April 2025, military-run telecom giant Viettel began construction of its data center in the Tan Phu Trung Industrial Park. Covering nearly 4 hectares, it will have a designed capacity of 140 MW, ranking among the top 10 in Southeast Asia.

The facility will house around 10,000 racks, with operations beginning in Q1/2026 and full completion before 2030. Upon completion, it will be Vietnam’s first data center with a capacity exceeding 100 MW, classifying it as hyperscale, comparable to the world’s largest data centers.

In July 2024, CMC Corporation established CMC AI Digital Infrastructure (CMC ADI), a subsidiary specializing in hyperscale data center investment and operations, serving cloud computing and AI needs.

The first project, launched in HCMC with an initial investment of $250 million, has the potential to expand to 120 MW, making it one of Vietnam’s largest.

CMC also signed an MoU with South Korea’s Samsung C&T Corporation to develop an additional $1 billion data center project in the southern metropolis.

FPT Corporation inaugurated the Fornix HCM02 Data Center in August 2025, featuring a 10,000-square-meter facility that can accommodate 3,600 racks, making it one of Vietnam’s largest data centers to date.

Recently, the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee received a proposal for a $2 billion Hyperscale Data Center dedicated to AI development from a consortium comprising Group 42 Holding Ltd (G42) (with major shareholders including a UAE sovereign wealth fund and U.S. tech giant Microsoft), Vietnam’s tech giant FPT Corporation, investment fund manager VinaCapital, and Viet Thai Group