Hanoi (VNA) - The growing demand for artificial intelligence has had a huge impact on Vietnam's data center investment and expansion plans. In 2024 alone, the world's largest technology companies such as Microsoft, Meta, Alphabet, Amazon, etc. have invested more than US$200 billion in Vietnam's data center and artificial intelligence tool development.

In Vietnam, artificial intelligence and semiconductors are identified as development areas in the long-term strategy. To welcome this wave of investment, Vietnamese companies such as VNPT, Viettel, CMC, FPT, and VNG have been increasing their investment to expand the capacity of data center systems. A typical example is CMC's plan to invest US$500 million from now to 2028 to build data centers and other facilities in Vietnam, Japan, and other countries.

Or the Vietnam Military Electronics and Telecommunications Corporation (Viettel). From 2025 to 2030, Viettel will build 11 large-scale data centers with a total power of more than 350 megawatts, accounting for more than 40% of Vietnam's total data center power. Viettel will cooperate with NVIDIA to develop data center infrastructure using artificial intelligence.

Compared with other countries, Vietnam has investment advantages in data center construction. According to the latest report released by Cushman & Wakefield, Vietnam is still a popular destination for data center investors. Vietnam's construction cost is in the lowest cost group in the Asia-Pacific region, second only to Taiwan, China.

Cushman & Wakefield General Manager Zhuang Pei believes that Vietnam has the potential to become a large data market in the region due to its reasonable construction costs and advantageous geographical location. This is fully demonstrated by the attention paid to the Vietnamese market by global large groups such as Apple, Intel, Canon, Samsung, LG, Lego and Airbus. With the continuous improvement of transparency, openness to foreign companies and reform of the administrative approval system, it is expected to create more opportunities for international investors and promote the development of Vietnam's data center industry.

It is likely that by 2025, Vietnam will usher in a wave of construction of data centers that integrate artificial intelligence. Large foreign companies will become an important driving force for this wave. In order to seize this major opportunity, Vietnam needs to quickly improve power supply, land use, human resources and a flexible legal environment.