(VOVWORLD) - Early this month, representatives from leading tech firms like Nvidia, Meta, Intel, and Qualcomm gathered at a workshop on business, the younger generation, AI, and semiconductor technology. They agreed to build an innovation ecosystem in Vietnam that will make semiconductor and AI technologies the primary pillars of Vietnam’s digital economy.
 Ms. Becky Fraser of Qualcomm Group (Photo: NIC) |
“Qualcomm has several resources supporting Vietnam's developer community to connect them with tools to adopt and advance AI on the edge,” Becky Fraser, Vice President of Qualcomm’s Global Government Affairs, said last Tuesday at the workshop, which is part of Innovate Vietnam 2024 and the 5th anniversary of Vietnam’s National Innovation Center (NIC).
“Qualcomm brings to the table, first, we've significantly increased AI processing performance and power efficiency in our best-in-class NPU, GPU, and CPU. Second, we're collaborating with multiple partners to enable a host of consumer and productivity-based AI models running natively on our platform. Third, we're enabling multi-billion parameter GenAI models to run continuously and concurrently from multiple use cases,” the Qualcomm official noted.
She added that over the past 20 years, Qualcomm has been a committed partner in Vietnam’s digital transformation as Vietnam has transformed, upscaled, and digitized its economy.
At the workshop, Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung affirmed that Vietnam has everything necessary to attract and cooperate with foreign businesses and investors in semiconductors and AI.
Since 2021 Vietnam has promulgated a strategy for AI development. Last month the Government approved a National Strategy for Semiconductor Industry Development to 2030, with a vision to 2050 and issued a Decree on Investment Support in 2024.
A National Steering Committee for Semiconductor Industry Development, a National Innovation Center, and high-tech parks in Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, and Da Nang were established.
Vietnam's semiconductor and AI ecosystem is being promoted engaging large tech firms like Google, Meta, Nvidia, Intel, Cadence, Synopsys, Qorvo, and Qualcomm.
Vietnam is enhancing cooperation in semiconductor and AI development with more developed countries in the spirit of the saying "If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together".
 Dr. Ettikan Karuppiah of Nvidia Group (Photo: NIC) |
At the workshop, Dr. Ettikan Karuppiah, Director/Technologist at Nvidia Asia Pacific South Region, insisted on the need to master AI technology to develop domestic GenAI solutions toward global reach.
According to the Nvidia official, the group has more than 500 software stacks and libraries including, for example, graph optimization and route optimization, or solutions for Quantum Computing, for a hardware optimization for an MRI machine and so forth.
“The full stack solution that you have, you can easily use it to develop a model so this could be a foundational model in Vietnamese, said Dr. Ettikan Karuppiah, adding, “Now you can start from a pre-trained model from ai.nvidia.com. If you go to the site, there are more than 100 models that we have trained in the space of ASR TDS foundational models, reasoning models, drug discovery type of models, and so forth. You can take it and use it to localize it.”
Nvidia has introduced a comprehensive development program for software developers in Vietnam to enhance technical capacity, promote innovation and creativity, and connect the domestic software developers’ community.
 Ms. Sarah Kemp of Intel Group (Photo: NIC) |
For her part, Sarah Kemp, Intel’s Vice President of International Government Affairs, underscored the central role of AI in all aspects of life from agriculture to energy, education, healthcare, commerce, and transportation.
“We have our digital readiness program, which is focused around digital skills, yes, but it's so much more. It's about trust and about responsible use. And again, it's about bringing everyone along. It's important that citizens understand AI so that we demystify it, so people aren't scared of it. We have AI for youth. AI for the future workforce. This is a program, it's about 1,100 hours of coursework. At the end of it, you get the equivalent of a BS. And we're very pleased that we're working with MOET in Vietnam and some of the universities to launch that here,” said Sarah Kemp.
 Nick Clegg of Meta Group (Photo: NIC) |
Meanwhile, Nick Clegg, Meta’s Global Affairs President, insisted that as Vietnam continues to be an important country for the group, the group has detailed plans to realize its commitment to Vietnam’s innovation and digital transformation.
Clegg said Meta has very ambitious plans here in Vietnam, particularly in three areas.
“First, we’ll be manufacturing our latest cutting-edge metaverse headsets, called the Quest 3S model, which Mark Zuckerberg unveiled last week. We’ll be manufacturing them right here in Vietnam. That will itself create well over a thousand new jobs. Second, we’ll be making, over the next month, Meta AI – the world's most popular conversational AI agent – available to everybody in Vietnam – on Instagram, on Facebook, on Messenger, on WhatsApp. And third, we’ll be making available, over the next few months, to two businesses in Vietnam that use Messenger to communicate with customers, new AI tools so they can communicate with their customers using AI,” Clegg noted.
With the support of the world’s leading technology corporations and organizations, Vietnam is creating a favorable investment and business environment for investors in high-tech and innovation, including AI and semiconductors.