Bringing Vietnam into the top 3 ASEAN countries in high-performance computing capabilities.
The project "Building a High-Performance Computing Center to Serve the Development of Artificial Intelligence in Vietnam, period 2026-2035" aims to bring Vietnam into the top 3 of ASEAN and train 1,000 experts specializing in HPC and AI.
This information was shared by Mr. Tran Minh Tuan, Deputy Director of the Institute of Digital Technology and Digital Transformation, Ministry of Science and Technology, at the 28th National Conference on Electronics, Communications and Information Technology (REV-ECIT 2025) on the afternoon of December 20th at Hanoi University of Science and Technology.
Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Pham Duc Long delivered a keynote address at the conference. (Photo: Organizing Committee)
Previously, in his keynote address, Deputy Minister Pham Duc Long stated that some of the Ministry's key orientations for 2026 include continuing to review and remove institutional bottlenecks, unlocking and effectively mobilizing resources for science, technology and innovation. The overarching spirit of the new laws is to shift from a management mindset to a constructive mindset, from "input management" to "output evaluation," and from a scattered approach to a focus on strategic technologies.
"A key direction is to strongly implement controlled testing mechanisms (sandboxes) for new business models, products, and methods, thereby shortening the gap from research to application, to laboratory and commercialization," Deputy Minister Pham Duc Long emphasized.
Three national challenges in Vietnam's AI development
"Building a High-Performance Computing (HPC) Center to serve the development of Artificial Intelligence in Vietnam in the period 2026-2035" is a national strategic project aimed at building the foundational infrastructure for Vietnam's AI development in the next decade with a total estimated budget of 7,500 billion VND.
Reviewing the highlights of Vietnam's AI infrastructure, Mr. Tran Minh Tuan pointed out that the total AI infrastructure capacity nationwide as of 2024 will only reach about 51MW, while 61.2% of businesses are deploying AI solutions. Furthermore, only 22% of the 61.2% of businesses that have implemented AI are actually ready to fully exploit the potential of this technology.
These two figures highlight a significant gap between infrastructure supply and application demand, as well as the distance between "having AI" and "using AI proficiently."
According to representatives from the Ministry of Science and Technology, the two biggest obstacles hindering Vietnamese businesses from accessing AI are high implementation costs (46.7% of businesses face financial difficulties) and a shortage of highly skilled AI professionals (43.7%).
These two issues reveal three national challenges: the AI infrastructure is too small compared to actual needs; there is a lack of high-capacity power; and there are no specific standards and regulations to guide the development of AI infrastructure.
Mr. Tran Minh Tuan, Deputy Director of the Institute of Digital Technology and Digital Transformation, Ministry of Science and Technology, introduced the project. Photo: Du Lam
Meanwhile, the Vietnamese AI market is projected to grow by approximately 18% annually from 2024 to 2030, reaching a size of US$1.6 billion by 2030. This is driving large enterprises such as Viettel, FPT, and foreign corporations to expand their domestic AI infrastructure.
Placing Vietnam in the top 3 ASEAN countries in terms of HPC infrastructure for AI
The project is expected to be divided into three phases: pilot (2026-2027), implementation (2028-2030), and completion (2031-2035). The most important milestone in the completion phase is achieving over 70% technological self-reliance in applications, meaning that the majority of AI software and solutions will be developed by domestic teams instead of relying on foreign products.
“This autonomy not only reduces licensing and service costs but also ensures data security and technological independence, key factors for Vietnam to truly master the AI revolution ,” Mr. Tran Minh Tuan shared.
The project outlines five specific tasks regarding the construction of HPC infrastructure, software and platforms, applications and services, data development, human resources, and the ecosystem. The project proposes assigning the Ministry of Science and Technology to implement an Open Data Center for AI located at the National Data Center, serving AI research, training, and application with a policy of publicly sharing data with the community at preferential or free rates depending on the target audience. There
will be three data tiers with increasing complexity: a multi-domain, multi-style Vietnamese LLM dataset reaching 200-400 billion tokens in phase two (2028-2030); The project will utilize multimedia data including purely Vietnamese images, videos, and audio in phase three (2031-2035); and specialized datasets for six priority sectors: healthcare, logistics, agriculture, law, finance, and education.
The project aims to place Vietnam in the top 3 ASEAN countries in HPC capabilities by 2035 through the training of 1,000 experts specializing in HPC and AI, creating a human resource foundation for the sustainable development of the domestic artificial intelligence industry.
The domestic economy will also benefit doubly from the project. On the one hand, sharing computing resources instead of individual investments will help businesses and research organizations save over $100 million annually in infrastructure costs. On the other hand, the national AI infrastructure will foster the emergence of two AI unicorns valued at over $1 billion, along with more than 50 commercial AI products serving the domestic and export markets, contributing 0.3% to the national GDP, equivalent to approximately $1.5 billion annually from AI-related activities and digital transformation.
Scientifically, the project is expected to enhance Vietnam's basic research capacity with a 300% increase in scientific simulation, climate and energy forecasting, and new materials development capabilities compared to the present, enabling proactive research and reducing dependence on foreign computing centers.
Du Lam
According to VietNamNet