Expectations of Vietnamese AI startups after Nvidia's commitment

AI startups believe the artificial intelligence sector in Vietnam can be upgraded with support from Nvidia.

At the Seminar on Semiconductor and Artificial Intelligence Development, organized by the Ministry of Planning and Investment on the morning of December 11 in Hoa Lac, Mr. Jensen Huang, founder of Nvidia, said that many Vietnamese enterprises are currently customers and bring in more than half a billion USD in annual revenue for the company. In the coming time, Nvidia will increase investment and commit to turning Vietnam into "Nvidia's second homeland".

At the event, many startups developing or applying AI in operations said that Nvidia has many favorable conditions when entering Vietnam, while the domestic AI industry can be upgraded from this cooperation.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (right cover) is looking at a Vietnamese AI product. Photo: Luu Quy

Vietnam is a favorable environment for Nvidia

According to experts, Vietnam has a favorable environment for AI startups to develop. Talking about investing in artificial intelligence seven years ago and having a team of nearly 200 AI engineers, Mr. Nguyen Manh Tuong, CEO of MoMo, said that the company is also using Nvidia products to serve more than 30 million users. He hopes Nvidia will soon build a technology center, making it easier for Vietnamese businesses to access Nvidia's AI solutions, and at the same time allowing Vietnamese engineers to compete at a world-class level.

According to Mr. Truong Quoc Hung, CEO of VinBrain, specializing in AI in healthcare, the formula for success in the field of AI requires factors such as data, computing power and human resources. In particular, Vietnam with a population of more than 100 million people will be an important source of data to build AI systems.

Regarding human resources, Mr. Hung assessed that the available training programs can train a large number of high-quality engineers, instead of having to study abroad like his generation before. Citing the example of the company's products participating in global exhibitions in the medical field, the representative of VinBrain affirmed that the quality of Vietnamese human resources can make good products and serve not only Vietnamese people.

Finally, in terms of computing power, Mr. Hung said that VinBrain products are supporting healthcare for two million people each year, reducing the cost of testing for some diseases from hundreds of dollars to two dollars. According to him, this is partly thanks to computing power through the use of Nvidia products.

According to Mr. Cao Anh Tuan, founder of Genetica, which specializes in decoding genes using artificial intelligence technology, the good support of the Government is the reason why his company moved from the US to Vietnam, instead of Singapore as originally planned. After four years, the company has achieved many important achievements, especially being able to help customers in the region such as Japan and Korea not need to send pathological samples to the US, but can send them to Vietnam for analysis.

"We face many challenges, and there will certainly be many challenges in the next 10 years. But with that support, we believe we will be in the top three artificial intelligence companies in Asia," said Mr. Tuan.

"Vietnam has a lot of young businesses and talented people. You should set up an office here soon," Genetica's founder told Jensen Huang.

CEO Jensen Huang. Photo: Luu Quy

Expectations to elevate the AI ​​industry

Having two working sessions with Nvidia CEO, FPT Group Chairman Truong Gia Binh said that AI, chips, and electronics will be key factors for Vietnam to catch up with advanced countries in the world. The Group is investing heavily in AI and has achieved a number of achievements such as having products used by millions of people globally, joining the world AI alliance initiated by IBM and Meta, and establishing research strategies with Mila - the world's leading AI research institute.

According to Mr. Binh, accompanying Nvidia will contribute to making Vietnam a stronghold to attract AI and semiconductor talents around the world, thereby developing the ecosystem, promoting startups, designing and developing supercomputers.

Mr. Bui Hai Hung, CEO of VinAI, said that the company has also achieved a number of research achievements in recent times, including publishing hundreds of reports in leading AI journals, ranking in the global top 20 in terms of research capacity. Last week, the company also announced Pho GPT, a large language model application to serve Vietnamese people.

However, according to Mr. Hung, developing sustainable AI will require optimization of cost and energy efficiency to create "greener and cleaner" AI. "We look forward to support from partners like Nvidia," Mr. Hung said.

In addition to cooperation to develop infrastructure and computing capacity, AI experts also expect to improve human resources from cooperation with Nvidia.

Thang Luong, an expert at Google DeepMind, assessed that Vietnamese people are interested in AI, with tens of thousands of people using new applications such as ChatGPT and Bard immediately after their launch. According to him, AI will have a great impact on the technology sector, and Vietnam will also be an important component of the region's generative AI.

"We want to exploit Nvidia's strengths in AI to improve this field, bringing Vietnam's AI industry to new heights," said Mr. Thang.

Recalling the statement of Nvidia's founder in 2018, when Mr. Huang bet that AI would develop dramatically, Mr. Thang said that Nvidia this time "does not need to bet on the development of the AI ​​industry in Vietnam", because there will be government support, along with quality human resources.

Listening to the startups' sharing, Mr. Jensen Huang assessed that Vietnam has a team of young, talented and up-to-date entrepreneurs and businesses. "They returned to Vietnam because they saw what I also saw, which is the opportunity for Vietnam," he said.

According to Nvidia founder, AI is a "big and fast wave". Vietnam has the same starting point as the world, but has special resources such as the world's leading team of scientists and mathematicians.

"If we can ride the big wave, Vietnam will grow, prosper, and opportunities will open up. I believe we can do that," he said. "I appreciate the Government's vision and commitment to creating conditions for Vietnam to take advantage of this new and fast wave of AI. I am honored and ready to be a partner with Vietnam."

Liu Gui

Vnexpress.net