AI and Semiconductor Development: Is Vietnam Seizing the "Once in 4,000 Years" Opportunity?

(PLVN) - AI and semiconductors are creating a global technological revolution. Vietnam is facing a historic opportunity to become an important link in the supply chain. With advantages in geographical location, young human resources and investment incentive policies, Vietnam has the potential to attract large technology corporations. However, according to experts, for Vietnam to truly "rise up", the problem of high-quality human resources and technological infrastructure needs to be solved.

Vietnam has enough opportunities to "rise up"

Speaking at the International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Semiconductors (AISC) 2025 organized by Aitomatic (USA) and the National Innovation Center (NIC) yesterday (March 12), Mr. Christopher Nguyen - CEO of Aitomatic affirmed: AI and semiconductors are currently the pillars for the future of the digital economy. In particular, the two elements "AI" and "semiconductors" go hand in hand. Most obviously, AI helps automate the semiconductor manufacturing process, predict and detect product defects, improve production quality and efficiency.

By 2030, he said, some manufacturing plants, especially advanced manufacturing facilities, will require more stringent standards. For example, in plasma processing, parameters such as fuel diameter, pressure, temperature and dozens of other factors must be ensured to ensure near-absolute precision. AI will contribute to ensuring this precision.

“AI cannot develop without semiconductors, and conversely, the semiconductor industry is changing rapidly thanks to advances in AI. It is a symbiotic relationship where both push each other forward,” he said.

Ông Christopher Nguyễn, Nhà sáng lập, Aitomatic (Ảnh: Thanh Hà).

Mr. Christopher Nguyen, Founder, Aitomatic (Photo: Thanh Ha).

Regarding the general technology picture, Mr. Christopher Nguyen cited Moore's law, affirming that the development speed of AI and semiconductors is very fast. Every 18 months, microprocessor technology has significant improvements.

As for the market, the world is witnessing remarkable growth with demand for AI processing chips expected to continue to increase sharply in the coming years. Countries such as the US, China, Japan, and South Korea are stepping up investment in this field. The race between leading countries in technology is extremely fierce.

"If we calculate the average bandwidth per capita for countries with a population of over 100 million, Vietnam is now only behind the US and Japan in terms of international Internet access, surpassing even large countries like China and India. These are great advantages that will help Vietnam achieve breakthrough opportunities in AI and semiconductors in the next 5 to 10 years," said Mr. Christopher Nguyen.

In that context, expert Christopher Nguyen believes that Vietnam has the opportunity to become an important link in the global supply chain. With advantages in geographical location, young human resources and investment incentive policies, Vietnam has the potential to attract leading technology corporations to set up factories and research centers.

International businesses also highly appreciate Vietnam's great strides in investing in AI and semiconductor infrastructure, especially through programs to encourage innovation and attract foreign investment. "Japan wants to invest in Vietnam. South Korea wants to invest in Vietnam. Taiwan also wants to invest in Vietnam. And even in terms of geopolitics, this is an advantage for Vietnam," said Mr. Christopher Nguyen.

However, according to Mr. Christopher Nguyen, Vietnam needs to address a number of important challenges to be able to truly "rise" in this field.

First of all, human resources. Vietnam has the advantage of a young population that quickly absorbs technology, but still lacks highly qualified AI experts and semiconductor engineers. He believes that quality human resource training programs should be prioritized. These programs should not stop at the university level, but instead require cooperation between businesses and universities to create conditions for students to practice and access new technologies.

Regarding technology infrastructure, expert Christopher Nguyen suggested that Vietnam should continue to invest in large data centers, high-tech parks, and advanced computing network systems. In particular, businesses need a complete technology ecosystem that will help easily deploy AI applications and promote innovation in the semiconductor industry.

In particular, according to Mr. Christopher Nguyen, the legal environment is important. Vietnam needs to build a clear and flexible legal framework to support the development of AI and semiconductors, while creating a transparent playing field to attract foreign businesses. Completing data protection policies, intellectual property and related regulations will help the AI and semiconductor industries develop more sustainably.

Assessing Vietnam's AI and semiconductor development opportunities, Mr. Christopher Nguyen affirmed: "Many people say this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I say no, this is a 4,000-year opportunity for Vietnam."

Committed to creating favorable conditions for businesses

Speaking at the workshop, Mr. Vu Quoc Huy - Director of the National Innovation Center - said that in the context of AI and semiconductors playing a key role in digital transformation, Vietnam is actively embracing the Fourth Industrial Revolution, considering these as strategic pillars for development. With a favorable geographical location, high-quality workforce, modern infrastructure and open investment policies, Vietnam is becoming a new technology hub of the region.

Ông Vũ Quốc Huy, Giám đốc, Trung tâm Đổi mới sáng tạo Quốc gia (Ảnh: Thanh Hà).

Mr. Vu Quoc Huy, Director, National Innovation Center (Photo: Thanh Ha).

He emphasized that Vietnam is gradually affirming its position as one of the emerging technology centers in Southeast Asia. Cooperation with large corporations such as Google, NVIDIA and Meta AI not only helps Vietnam access advanced technology but also creates a foundation for developing domestic AI solutions.

In addition, the Vietnamese Government is committed to continuing to create favorable conditions for technology enterprises, from supporting research to expanding international cooperation networks. The initiative to provide more than 1,000 AI scholarships for Vietnamese students, in cooperation with Google, is one of the steps to develop high-quality human resources in this field.

“AISC 2025 facilitates collaboration and groundbreaking discussions to shape the future of artificial intelligence (AI) and the semiconductor industry. I urge all delegates to take advantage of this opportunity to build strong partnerships and drive technological advancement,” said Mr. Huy.

Many industries witness breakthroughs thanks to AI

At the workshop, leaders from many leading domestic and foreign enterprises brought diverse perspectives on AI applications to create spectacular breakthroughs in business and production.

In the banking sector, Mr. Bui Hai Quan - Vice Chairman of Vietnam Prosperity Joint Stock Commercial Bank (VPBank) - shared that realizing the role of technology and AI, from very early on, the unit firmly chose to master technology instead of simply following the market. The bank has built an Ecosystem - a seamless and powerful digital ecosystem that closely connects member companies in the group, operating in many fields from banking to consumer finance, securities, digital insurance, etc.

Ông Bùi Hải Quân - Phó Chủ tịch Ngân hàng TMCP Việt Nam Thịnh Vượng (VPBank) (Ảnh: Thanh Hà).

Mr. Bui Hai Quan - Vice Chairman of Vietnam Prosperity Joint Stock Commercial Bank (VPBank) (Photo: Thanh Ha).

All of VPBank's ecosystems are technology-centric, such as the VPBank NEO app with more than 10 million users, processing 600 million transactions/year, OPES (insurance) reaching revenue of VND 2,600 billion in 2024 with only 110 employees. Notably, Cake by VPBank, launched in early 2021, has become the leading digital bank in Vietnam with only 250 employees, but serves up to 5 million customers, processing an average of 700,000 credit applications per month.

In February 2025, Cake was recognized by The Asian Banker Global (TAB Global) as one of the Top 100 Digital Banks in the World, and was also honored as “Best Digital Bank in Vietnam”.

According to Mr. Quan, VPBank clearly defines its strategic vision in becoming a bridge to deeply integrate Vietnam with the world, through powerful digital platforms, bringing the most advanced technology to Vietnam, and at the same time introducing Vietnam's technological capacity and innovation to the world.

Providing a perspective on AI applications in the chip manufacturing sector, Ms. Anna Goldie - senior expert in scientific research, Google - commented that: while AI's computing needs are growing exponentially, hardware capacity is not keeping up, creating an increasingly large gap.

To address this problem, new AI technologies such as AlphaChip - an AI-powered chip design method - have been introduced. She said that thanks to the application of AI, the chip design process is incredibly accelerated, while helping to reduce costs and optimize performance.

Bà Anna Goldie, Chuyên gia cấp cao về nghiên cứu khoa học, Google. (Ảnh: Thanh Hà).

Ms. Anna Goldie, Senior Research Scientist, Google. (Photo: Thanh Ha).

“To fully exploit the potential of AI, we need to shorten chip design cycles, improve algorithms and make the most of data. In the future, AI will not only help improve hardware but also contribute to shaping breakthroughs in many other fields, from healthcare, finance to industrial manufacturing,” said Ms. Anna Goldie.

Specifically, Ms. Anna Goldie introduced the AlphaChip method that uses AI to optimize the layout of components on the chip, helping to reduce latency, save power and optimize production area. AI can improve the chip design process by shortening the time and improving product performance. AlphaChip has been applied to recent generations of Google TPUs, bringing significant efficiency compared to traditional design methods.

Meanwhile, Mr. Tran Thanh Long - Professor of Warwick University shared more about the efforts in the world that are helping to increase the power of AI and semiconductor technology. For example, he mentioned the use of memory stores and Bayesian theory to improve the performance and scalability of artificial intelligence (AI). Memory stores help AI remember information for a long time and use past data to optimize decisions.

“Bayesian theory helps AI adjust its prediction probabilities based on new data, helping the system learn faster and more efficiently. This combination reduces the requirement for computational resources while still ensuring high accuracy,” Long explained.

In addition, this approach helps AI operate more smoothly in areas such as healthcare, industrial manufacturing, and automation. In particular, AI can process data better without relying too much on large data centers, saving costs and resources. As a result, systems are smarter, more efficient, and self-adjusting without needing huge amounts of data.

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