Nvidia and FPT spend $200 million to open AI factory

At the signing ceremony on the morning of April 23 in Hanoi, FPT representative said the investment of 200 million USD was made with the goal of expanding Vietnam's sovereign cloud computing ecosystem. This AI factory does not produce hardware, operating on the latest technology platform of Nvidia, including the application suite and AI development technology framework in AI Enterprise and GPU H100 Tensor Core graphics chip.

According to a representative of the Vietnamese technology group, the factory's mission is to enhance AI research and development capabilities, thereby building advanced applications and solutions, focusing on generative AI (GenAI), autonomous vehicles and green transformation.

The factory is expected to contribute to improving Vietnam's capacity to provide high-tech AI and cloud solutions on a global scale, while also improving the quality of technology human resources.

"We are committed to making Vietnam the world's AI development center," said Mr. Truong Gia Binh, Chairman of FPT.

Meanwhile, Mr. Keith Strier, Vice President of Nvidia, said: "AI has great potential to improve the quality of life and strengthen the economy for every country, by promoting innovation in many fields such as healthcare, agriculture, meteorology and manufacturing. We will accompany businesses with the goal of accelerating digital transformation, making Vietnam an AI powerhouse."

FPT plans to introduce Nvidia training content into university and high school curricula to develop high-tech human resources. The group aims to have at least 30,000 students and pupils access the program within 5 years.

Also at the event, Nvidia announced that FPT has become a Service Delivery Partner in the network, specializing in providing software, hardware, cloud computing services and AI solutions integrated with Nvidia technology. FPT will focus on the fields of automotive technology, manufacturing, finance, banking and insurance.

The two parties will also jointly develop cloud gaming services in Vietnam through infrastructure and deploy GeForce Now services.

Previously, on April 22, Mr. Keith Strier also had a meeting with Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung, in which he consolidated the construction and development of Vietnam's semiconductor and AI ecosystem. A source said that Nvidia's purpose in coming to Vietnam this time was to survey and work with parties to establish a research, development and training center on AI, install supercomputers, and possibly transfer part of the production of GPUs for supercomputers to Vietnam.

In December 2023, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang made a trip to Asia, visiting Japan, Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam, in order to find potential partners for Nvidia. During the meetings, he emphasized that Asia has become the world's technology center, expressing the group's desire to expand its operations there.

In early April, Budi Arie Setiadi, Indonesia’s communications minister, said Nvidia was planning to open a $200 million artificial intelligence center in partnership with telecommunications company Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison. The new facility, located in the city of Surakarta, is intended to bolster local telecommunications infrastructure, human resources, and digital talent. Nvidia declined to comment on the report at the time.

Nvidia, founded in 1993, is the "star" of the semiconductor industry as the company's AI chip model is constantly sought after. In early 2022, the company announced the H100, the world's most powerful GPU graphics processor at that time, but analysts assessed that the launch time was wrong, because businesses were looking to tighten spending and lay off staff. However, by the end of that year, ChatGPT unexpectedly created a global fever, making Nvidia's AI chip scarce. Nvidia's market capitalization increased from $400 billion in January 2023 to $2,000 billion earlier this year.