HANOI – Nvidia wishes to establish a base in Vietnam to develop the country’s semiconductor industry as it considers its market an important one, the Vietnamese government said, citing the US chipmaker’s chief executive.

In his first visit to Vietnam, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said the company viewed the South-east Asian country as its home and affirmed its plans to set up a centre there.

“The base will be for attracting talent from around the world to contribute to the development of Vietnam’s semiconductor ecosystem and digitalisation,” the Vietnamese government statement on Dec 10 cited Mr Huang after his meeting with Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh.

Nvidia, which has already invested US$250 million (S$335 million) in Vietnam, was set to discuss cooperation deals on semiconductors with Vietnamese tech companies and the authorities in a meeting on Dec 11, Reuters reported.

Vietnam, which is home to large chip assembling factories, including Intel’s biggest globally, is trying to expand into chip designing and possibly chipmaking as trade tensions between the United States and China create opportunities for Vietnam in the industry.

The chipmaker has already partnered Vietnam’s leading tech companies to deploy artificial intelligence in the cloud, automotive and healthcare industries, a document published by the White House in September showed when Washington upgraded diplomatic relations with Vietnam.
REUTERS