AI dream, chip dream

Dr. Andrew Ng, former head of Google Brain, one of the world's living legends in artificial intelligence (AI), has just come to Vietnam and signed a strategic cooperation agreement with FPT in the field of artificial intelligence (AI). At the signing ceremony, Mr. Truong Gia Binh, Chairman of FPT, said that the group "bet on Andrew Ng".

Why is that? Are we being too dreamy when we set the ambition to increase our software sales to foreign countries from the current $1 billion to $5 billion by 2028? Some people have expressed to us their concerns about resources, including human resources and finance.

Accordingly, Vietnam's semiconductor workforce has not yet met 20% of the demand and its contribution to Vietnam's supply chain is admittedly low. While Taiwan started its attraction policy in the 1970s and has only now achieved resounding success in semiconductor manufacturing, is FPT's 35-year figure feasible?

Attendees experience virtual reality technology at the FPT Techday 2023 event (Photo: Organizing Committee).

It is true that Vietnam is lacking human resources for semiconductor manufacturing. Foreign companies opening semiconductor factories in Vietnam such as Intel, Samsung, Amkor, Hana Micron all complain of a shortage, and of course Vietnamese companies wanting to enter the semiconductor field also lack human resources.

The solution to the problem of semiconductor human resources for Vietnam is very simple, nothing new, just like 20 years ago we established FPT University with the goal of training human resources for software. 2 months ago, FPT University officially established the Semiconductor Microchip Faculty, the teachers and the practice place for students is FPT Semiconductor Company. Not only that, we also invited the most famous semiconductor chip companies in the world to participate and support the training. FPT has committed to the Prime Minister that we are responsible for training 15,000 semiconductor engineers for Vietnam.

Is Vietnam's contribution to the semiconductor chip supply chain still low? That's only talking about semiconductor chip factories of FDI enterprises in Vietnam. If we make our own chips, from designing our own chips, to doing business ourselves, and selling our own chips globally like FPT Semiconductor has done, the added value is not low, it's high!

So the biggest problem for Vietnam is to have "made in Vietnam chips" that can be traded in large quantities, then of course the added value will be high. We have to act with our own internal strength, not sit and cry out for foreign companies to transfer technology and localize like we have been doing for a long time.

Taiwan has been in the semiconductor chip business since the 1970s, that's right! But times are different now. If in the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, chips were mainly used in computers, televisions, robots, telecommunications equipment, aircraft and military equipment, now chips have entered every device around us, from cars, motorbikes, elevators, medical equipment, televisions, refrigerators, cookers, ovens, microwaves, washing machines, vacuum cleaners, pool cleaners, door locks, not only that, chips are also in house gates, water pumps, garden irrigation systems, swimming pool maintenance systems, blood pressure monitors, personal diabetes monitors...

That is, the demand for chips is growing at a very fast rate. That is why opportunities are open to everyone, including newcomers to the semiconductor chip field, and of course we do not have to travel the same distance as Taiwan did 50 years ago.

So what should Vietnamese businesses do? Of course, the first thing is to train human resources, followed by design, software development and chip trading. Don't expect to go straight into chip manufacturing. Remember, chip manufacturing is only the final stage, not the stage with the highest added value. Look at Apple, the world's largest phone company in terms of revenue, profit and capitalization, but they don't own any manufacturing plants, they outsource everything! Apple only does design, software, branding, marketing, sales and after-sales service.

As for investment capital for AI and chips, it is true that big companies like Microsoft, Google or Amazon are spending billions of dollars on AI every year and they will certainly spend more on AI. So do we have enough financial resources to go the long way in AI?

I really remember the very good and interesting saying of General Vo Nguyen Giap about Vietnam's way of fighting in the Dien Bien Phu battle: "If in 1954, we had fought Dien Bien Phu following the advice of foreign experts, we would have run out of ammunition in just 2 days, so we had to fight our way, and because we fought our way, we won."

We are the same, still cooperating internationally, still learning from big corporations, but we have to do it our own way. Moreover, we are not competing with Microsoft, Google, Apple, Amazon, Nvidia. We go our own way, have our own fields, the world is big enough for all to coexist and develop.

A week ago, FPT's AI platform (FPT.AI) was honored by the international organization Software Reviews as the world's best AI platform in 2023, then FPT Chatbot has been used by many customers in Japan, Europe, and Vietnam and highly appreciated for its great benefits in automatically processing customer requests, and FPT's order of 70 million IOT chips within just one year of our entry into the chip industry are the most convincing proofs.

We are dreamy but also very realistic, through actions and drastic actions to turn dreams and aspirations into reality. If in the first 35 years, we focused on high growth (reaching a sales scale of over 4 billion USD, 65,000 employees, nearly 5 billion USD in capitalization), then in the next journey, the focus will be on world-class products and services, especially artificial intelligence and chips.

Right now, we are dreaming of a day, not too far away, when Vietnam will have a revenue of 1 billion USD from exporting AI and chips abroad.

Author: Mr. Do Cao Bao has a BA in Control Mathematics, Military Technical Academy; worked at the Department of Operations, General Staff and Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology. Mr. Bao is one of the founding members of FPT Corporation, currently a member of the Board of Directors of FPT Corporation.

Dantri.com.vn