A wave of multibillion-dollar assembly, packaging, and testing plants has appeared in Vietnam over the past two decades, firmly planting the country on the global semiconductor map as a key manufacturing base. Nearly $11.6 billion in FDI capital has been poured into the local semiconductor industry, with most going to packaging and testing projects.
Vietnam’s semiconductor development strategy lays out an ambitious three-phase roadmap. Between 2024 and 2030, the country aims to establish at least 100 design enterprises, which is . expected to climb to at least 200 over the following decade. About 15 semiconductor design companies have already chosen Vietnam as the location for their global headquarters.
Momentum from crisis
A turning point emerged during the 2020-2022 chip shortage, which triggered a wave of global supply chain shifts, intensified geopolitical tensions, and heightened demand among major tech corporations to diversify their chip-design resources. These forces helped propel Vietnam, which is backed by its young population, political stability, dynamic engineering talent, and strategic location, into the spotlight as a new strategic destination on the semiconductor map.
This realization spurred the rapid rollout of Vietnam’s national semiconductor industry development strategy, along with a suite of incentive policies for talent and semiconductor enterprises. FDI inflows are now being selectively screened before entering Vietnam, with a focus on attracting higher-value added activities such as R&D and integrated circuit (IC) design.
Domestic companies, seeing both opportunity and clear policy direction, have also begun nurturing the ambition to develop “Made in Vietnam” chips for the global market. In truth, Vietnam’s dream of building its own semiconductor capabilities is not recent; it has been smoldering for nearly two decades. As early as 2008, Vietnam produced its first microprocessor, designed by lecturers and young engineers at the Vietnam National University, Ho Chi Minh City. Though the commercial rollout fell short of initial expectations, these early chips laid the groundwork for Vietnam’s semiconductor industry.
Vietnamese tech companies later entered the field in a more methodical way. FPT, the country’s leading technology group, began offering IC design services in 2014, before formally establishing FPT Semiconductor in 2022. In September that year, FPT Semiconductor introduced its first IC designed entirely in Vietnam, securing initial orders of up to 25 million units for 2024-2025. Viettel followed suit, announcing its first 5G DFE chip in late October 2023, designed entirely by its own engineers.
Today, Viettel and FPT are no longer the only players in core semiconductor technology. A growing roster of domestic firms, including VNCHIP, HYPHENDEUX, and the CT Group, have also entered the applied IC design space.
Many overseas Vietnamese experts have returned as well, bringing experience from some of the world’s leading semiconductor corporations. Among the most notable is Mr. Le Quang Dam, now General Director of Marvell Vietnam. In 2013, despite holding a coveted role as Engineering Director at global semiconductor design giant Marvell, he chose to leave behind a comfortable life in the US and return to Vietnam to build Marvell’s first office from scratch. Today, under his leadership, Marvell Vietnam operates offices in Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang, with more than 500 engineers, and the company has even committed to expanding its workforce by 15-20 per cent annually.
Two decades earlier, when semiconductors barely drew attention, US semiconductor leader Qorvo registered its business in Vietnam in 2005 under the leadership of Mr. Trinh Khac Hue. Today, Qorvo is among semiconductor design companies making meaningful contributions to investment and engineering education, helping train the next generation of Vietnamese semiconductor talent.
Promise meets constraints
Vietnam currently has around 7,000 IC design engineers, 6,000 engineers, and 10,000 technicians working in packaging, testing, and equipment manufacturing, along with more than 100 Vietnamese experts worldwide connected through the Vietnam Semiconductor Innovation Network, there are 166 semiconductor training institutions, with more than 6,300 students enrolled in core semiconductor programs and 12,000 in related fields. Around 20 institutions have adopted the “three-party linkage” training model.
Vietnam’s R&D ecosystem and internationally-standardized cleanroom systems are being built and expanded in major cities, such as SHTP Labs at the Saigon Hi-Tech Park (SHTP), with investment of VND300 billion ($11.5 million), and a laboratory at the Vietnam National University, Hanoi, worth $5 million.
Vietnam is home to nearly 50 foreign semiconductor design corporations and more than ten domestic design firms, such as Viettel, FPT, and CMC. In packaging and testing, there are 14 foreign companies and one domestic player. Support industries for semiconductors include 15 foreign enterprises.
According to Mr. Nguyen Thanh Yen, General Director of CoAsia SEMI Vietnam, as many as 15 semiconductor design companies have chosen Vietnam as their global headquarters. “This number is even higher than in the US, which has around 14 semiconductor design companies with global headquarters,” he said. “Companies from the US, Europe, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan (China), China, India, Singapore, and Malaysia are all present in Vietnam. Vietnam is becoming the intersection for global semiconductor design firms.”
It is an impressive comparison that highlights Vietnam’s rising position. Yet challenges remain. The industry requires long-term R&D investment, strong intellectual property (IP) protection, high technical standards, and expensive support systems, such as EDA (electronic design automation) tools, IP cores, and advanced laboratories. Meanwhile, the low localization rate of components and materials reduces Vietnam’s competitiveness in downstream manufacturing.
Experts warn that unless Vietnam quickly strengthens system-design capabilities, IP protection, and supply chains, the country risks being confined to “auxiliary design” rather than emerging as a true center of innovation.
During the second meeting of the National Steering Committee for Semiconductor Industry Development, in August, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh emphasized that Vietnam must be able to design, manufacture, and test several essential semiconductor chips by no later than 2027.
Many experts agree that Vietnam does not need, and is not ready, to target cutting-edge process nodes. According to Mr. Yen, it should focus on applied chips. “We don’t need to chase 2-nanometer (nm) chips,” he believes. “Producing stable, competitively-priced 28-nm chips would already be a victory.”
Dr. Le Hai Trieu, Director of the Institute of Industrial Electronics Engineering at the Department of Security Industry under the Ministry of Public Security, echoed the view that Vietnam should not aim for advanced nodes like 2 nm, 3 nm, or 5 nm - or even 14 nm, 16 nm, or 28 nm - at the outset, given the extremely high investment costs, complex technical requirements, and limited market demand.
Vietnam’s semiconductor development strategy lays out an ambitious three-phase roadmap for expanding its design enterprise base. From 2024 to 2030, the goal is to form at least 100 design enterprises. Over the following decade, this target rises to at least 200, and by 2050, the aim is 300. Vietnam currently has more than 60 design firms, including both domestic enterprises and foreign corporations. With current momentum, the targets for the next five years may not be out of reach.
Standfirst: Having secured a raft of semiconductor assembly, packaging, and testing plants, Vietnam’s next stage of development includes a greater focus on chip design. By Ngo Huyen
A wave of multibillion-dollar assembly, packaging, and testing plants has appeared in Vietnam over the past two decades, firmly planting the country on the global semiconductor map as a key manufacturing base. Nearly $11.6 billion in FDI capital has been poured into the local semiconductor industry, with most going to packaging and testing projects.
Vietnam’s semiconductor development strategy lays out an ambitious three-phase roadmap. Between 2024 and 2030, the country aims to establish at least 100 design enterprises, which is . expected to climb to at least 200 over the following decade. About 15 semiconductor design companies have already chosen Vietnam as the location for their global headquarters.
Momentum from crisis
A turning point emerged during the 2020-2022 chip shortage, which triggered a wave of global supply chain shifts, intensified geopolitical tensions, and heightened demand among major tech corporations to diversify their chip-design resources. These forces helped propel Vietnam, which is backed by its young population, political stability, dynamic engineering talent, and strategic location, into the spotlight as a new strategic destination on the semiconductor map.
This realization spurred the rapid rollout of Vietnam’s national semiconductor industry development strategy, along with a suite of incentive policies for talent and semiconductor enterprises. FDI inflows are now being selectively screened before entering Vietnam, with a focus on attracting higher-value added activities such as R&D and integrated circuit (IC) design.
Domestic companies, seeing both opportunity and clear policy direction, have also begun nurturing the ambition to develop “Made in Vietnam” chips for the global market. In truth, Vietnam’s dream of building its own semiconductor capabilities is not recent; it has been smoldering for nearly two decades. As early as 2008, Vietnam produced its first microprocessor, designed by lecturers and young engineers at the Vietnam National University, Ho Chi Minh City. Though the commercial rollout fell short of initial expectations, these early chips laid the groundwork for Vietnam’s semiconductor industry.
Vietnamese tech companies later entered the field in a more methodical way. FPT, the country’s leading technology group, began offering IC design services in 2014, before formally establishing FPT Semiconductor in 2022. In September that year, FPT Semiconductor introduced its first IC designed entirely in Vietnam, securing initial orders of up to 25 million units for 2024-2025. Viettel followed suit, announcing its first 5G DFE chip in late October 2023, designed entirely by its own engineers.
Today, Viettel and FPT are no longer the only players in core semiconductor technology. A growing roster of domestic firms, including VNCHIP, HYPHENDEUX, and the CT Group, have also entered the applied IC design space.
Many overseas Vietnamese experts have returned as well, bringing experience from some of the world’s leading semiconductor corporations. Among the most notable is Mr. Le Quang Dam, now General Director of Marvell Vietnam. In 2013, despite holding a coveted role as Engineering Director at global semiconductor design giant Marvell, he chose to leave behind a comfortable life in the US and return to Vietnam to build Marvell’s first office from scratch. Today, under his leadership, Marvell Vietnam operates offices in Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang, with more than 500 engineers, and the company has even committed to expanding its workforce by 15-20 per cent annually.
Two decades earlier, when semiconductors barely drew attention, US semiconductor leader Qorvo registered its business in Vietnam in 2005 under the leadership of Mr. Trinh Khac Hue. Today, Qorvo is among semiconductor design companies making meaningful contributions to investment and engineering education, helping train the next generation of Vietnamese semiconductor talent.
Promise meets constraints
Vietnam currently has around 7,000 IC design engineers, 6,000 engineers, and 10,000 technicians working in packaging, testing, and equipment manufacturing, along with more than 100 Vietnamese experts worldwide connected through the Vietnam Semiconductor Innovation Network, there are 166 semiconductor training institutions, with more than 6,300 students enrolled in core semiconductor programs and 12,000 in related fields. Around 20 institutions have adopted the “three-party linkage” training model.
Vietnam’s R&D ecosystem and internationally-standardized cleanroom systems are being built and expanded in major cities, such as SHTP Labs at the Saigon Hi-Tech Park (SHTP), with investment of VND300 billion ($11.5 million), and a laboratory at the Vietnam National University, Hanoi, worth $5 million.
Vietnam is home to nearly 50 foreign semiconductor design corporations and more than ten domestic design firms, such as Viettel, FPT, and CMC. In packaging and testing, there are 14 foreign companies and one domestic player. Support industries for semiconductors include 15 foreign enterprises.
According to Mr. Nguyen Thanh Yen, General Director of CoAsia SEMI Vietnam, as many as 15 semiconductor design companies have chosen Vietnam as their global headquarters. “This number is even higher than in the US, which has around 14 semiconductor design companies with global headquarters,” he said. “Companies from the US, Europe, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan (China), China, India, Singapore, and Malaysia are all present in Vietnam. Vietnam is becoming the intersection for global semiconductor design firms.”
It is an impressive comparison that highlights Vietnam’s rising position. Yet challenges remain. The industry requires long-term R&D investment, strong intellectual property (IP) protection, high technical standards, and expensive support systems, such as EDA (electronic design automation) tools, IP cores, and advanced laboratories. Meanwhile, the low localization rate of components and materials reduces Vietnam’s competitiveness in downstream manufacturing.
Experts warn that unless Vietnam quickly strengthens system-design capabilities, IP protection, and supply chains, the country risks being confined to “auxiliary design” rather than emerging as a true center of innovation.
During the second meeting of the National Steering Committee for Semiconductor Industry Development, in August, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh emphasized that Vietnam must be able to design, manufacture, and test several essential semiconductor chips by no later than 2027.
Many experts agree that Vietnam does not need, and is not ready, to target cutting-edge process nodes. According to Mr. Yen, it should focus on applied chips. “We don’t need to chase 2-nanometer (nm) chips,” he believes. “Producing stable, competitively-priced 28-nm chips would already be a victory.”
Dr. Le Hai Trieu, Director of the Institute of Industrial Electronics Engineering at the Department of Security Industry under the Ministry of Public Security, echoed the view that Vietnam should not aim for advanced nodes like 2 nm, 3 nm, or 5 nm - or even 14 nm, 16 nm, or 28 nm - at the outset, given the extremely high investment costs, complex technical requirements, and limited market demand.
Vietnam’s semiconductor development strategy lays out an ambitious three-phase roadmap for expanding its design enterprise base. From 2024 to 2030, the goal is to form at least 100 design enterprises. Over the following decade, this target rises to at least 200, and by 2050, the aim is 300. Vietnam currently has more than 60 design firms, including both domestic enterprises and foreign corporations. With current momentum, the targets for the next five years may not be out of reach.
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