Vietnam's Prime Minister calls on Qualcomm to expand core technology investment in semiconductor industry

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh has asked Qualcomm to expand its investment in Vietnam, especially in core technologies which have higher values in the semiconductor industry value chain.

The Vietnamese leader made the suggestion at a meeting with Cristiano Amon, president and CEO of Qualcomm Incorporated, in Hanoi on Tuesday.

Chinh said he wants the corporation to cooperate with businesses, institutes, schools, and the National Innovation Center of Vietnam to develop an innovative startup ecosystem, and support Vietnamese companies to participate more deeply in the production and supply chains of Qualcomm and its partners.

"Vietnam is continuing to implement many breakthrough solutions to attract high-quality investments and facilitate cooperation like the limited-term visa waiver scheme for leading experts and scientists," the government's news portal quoted the Prime Minister as saying.

In response, Cristiano Amon said he has confidence in Vietnam's future development and highly appreciates the country's policies on science and technology development, innovation, and digital transformation. He noted that many of Qualcomm's Vietnamese partners such as Viettel, VNPT, and FPT have matured rapidly.

Amon said he believes that Vietnam will become a regional center for research and development, especially in the field of AI.

Qualcomm is a technology corporation headquartered in San Diego, California. The corporation, with a fabless manufacturing model, has strengths in 5G technology and is expanding its business into semiconductors and software and services for industries such as AI, automobiles, computers and IoT.

In recent years, the corporation has operated according to a fabless production model, with an investment of about $70 billion in R&D. The giant owns more than 140,000 patents and leads in 5G technology.

Qualcomm on June 10 launched an AI research & development (R&D) center in Vietnam, after acquiring a 65% stake in AI company MovianAI from Vingroup, a leading Vietnamese conglomerate, earlier this year.

The new AI R&D center in Hanoi is the third of such centers of Qualcomm outside the U.S., after the ones in India and Ireland.

Also on June 10, Vietnam's Party General Secretary To Lam received Alex Rogers, president of global affairs at Qualcomm, in Hanoi.

Rogers told Lam that the AI R&D facility will be part of Qualcomm’s global AI research network and play a key role in developing generative and agentic AI solutions across various fields, including smartphones, personal computers, extended reality (XR), automotive technology, and internet of things (IoT) applications.

He noted that Vietnam’s AI talent ranks among the top 20 globally, with a strong pool of experts trained both domestically and abroad. This talent base, he said, positions Vietnam well to become a regional leader in AI and semiconductor development.

In Vietnam, before the establishment of the AI R&D center, Qualcomm had representative offices in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. The company established its first R&D center in Southeast Asia in 2020, located in Hanoi.

Qualcomm earned a revenue of $38.96 billion in fiscal year 2024 (ending September 29), including 12% from Vietnam, the second-highest portion among all nations.

According to Qualcomm’s annual report for fiscal year 2024, China (including Hong Kong) was the biggest market with 66% of Qualcomm revenue. Vietnam came second with 12%, equivalent to $4.7 billion. Other major markets were the United States with 3% and South Korea with 7%.