"AI infrastructure is a vital pillar for the digital future"

VnExpress - The global AI race is essentially an infrastructure race; investment in AI infrastructure has become a prerequisite, according to Mr. Nguyen Hoang Hung, Chief Technology Officer of Viettel AI.

At the Vietnam Artificial Intelligence Day (AI4VN) 2025 held on September 26, the Viettel AI representative presented a keynote titled 'AI Infrastructure - The Pillar for Creating a Digital Vietnam.' According to Mr. Hung, while the world is witnessing the leaps and bounds of AI models such as GPT-4 or Gemini, few realize that the 'backbone' behind these breakthroughs is a colossal hardware and data infrastructure.

'Anyone who controls the infrastructure will hold the value chain of the entire AI ecosystem,' Mr. Hung asserted.

Mr. Nguyen Hoang Hung, Technology Director of Viettel AI, presented a keynote at AI4VN 2025.

The Global Billion-Dollar Race

The representative from Viettel AI stated that global technology giants are pouring unprecedented investments into AI infrastructure. Meta, the parent company of Facebook, currently owns over 350,000 H100 GPUs and aims to possess one million GPUs this year. Meanwhile, Microsoft is expected to spend $60-70 billion on AI infrastructure and data centers next year. OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, has the ambition to own or access 1-2 million GPUs by 2027, progressing toward Artificial General Intelligence (AGI).

The reason for this "GPU thirst" stems from the massive computational requirements of modern AI models. Mr. Hung provided a comparison: to train the Llama 3 405B model, it took Meta, with its cluster of 16,000 GPUs, 80 days. If Vietnam were to use a small server cluster with 64 H100 GPUs, it would take up to 55 years to do the same thing.

This disparity highlights a massive gulf in computational capacity, which represents the most significant barrier for any nation aiming to master core AI technology. Consequently, the global High-Performance Computing (HPC) market is forecasted to surge, nearly doubling from $55.2 billion in 2024 to $101.48 billion by 2033.

"Everything begins with compute power," Mr. Hung emphasized, quoting OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. As AI models "think deeper," the requirement for computational resources will increase exponentially, driving a fierce race to build large-scale supercomputers and data centers.

In the context of this global AI race, Vietnam is an active participant. The government issued Resolution 57, setting a strategic goal to place Vietnam in the Top 3 in Southeast Asia and Top 50 globally in AI research by 2030, while simultaneously building modern digital infrastructure and achieving mastery over strategic technologies.

However, Mr. Hung pointed out that the challenges for Vietnam are considerable. As of May, Vietnam possesses 41 commercial data centers, yet the market size remains modest compared to regional powerhouses like Singapore or Malaysia. This presents both a barrier and a significant opportunity for domestic technology enterprises to make a breakthrough.

"The government is strongly promoting the National AI Strategy, and this represents a golden opportunity for Vietnam to rise," Mr. Hung concluded.

Viettel Actively Invests in AI Infrastructure

Anticipating trends and aligning with the national strategy, Viettel is emerging as a pioneer, investing heavily in AI infrastructure. The corporation currently operates 15 data centers and aims to increase its total capacity to 350 MW by 2030.

More significantly, Viettel is focusing its investment on the heart of AI infrastructure: GPUs. After commissioning the Nvidia DGX A100 system in 2021, Viettel proceeded to deploy the new generation AI Lab Nvidia DGX SuperPOD system and invested in hundreds of H200 and H100 GPU servers.

Viettel's strategy centers on three main pillars: expansion of GPU infrastructure and data centers; development of green and sustainable infrastructure; and provision of GPU cloud services (AI Cloud).

"The massive investment in infrastructure does not stop at hardware. This is the foundation that enables Viettel AI, with its team of over 300 experts, to build a comprehensive 'Make in Vietnam' ecosystem of AI products and services," Mr. Hung stated.

Mastering core technologies in natural language processing and computer vision allows Viettel to deploy practical solutions that address Vietnam's specific challenges. Key examples include the Virtual Legal Assistant, which is being applied across the entire national court system, handling tens of thousands of inquiries daily; data analysis and management solutions for 80% of provinces and cities; and the eKYC platform, which processes hundreds of millions of requests for the insurance and finance sectors.

With these solutions, the expert suggests that when a sufficiently strong infrastructure foundation is in place, Vietnamese enterprises can absolutely create AI applications that solve problems previously managed manually, with fragmented data, and high operating costs.

"AI infrastructure is the prerequisite for the success of digital transformation and innovation. Investment in infrastructure not only resolves enterprises' operational challenges but also serves as the foundation for Vietnam to create a self-reliant and sustainably developing digital future," Mr. Hung concluded.

The Vietnam Artificial Intelligence Day (AI4VN 2025), organized by VnExpress, was themed "Vietnam in the Global AI Race." At the event, managers and businesses shared practical challenges and solutions to promote the application and development of AI, linking it with the national strategy for digital transformation and AI development in Vietnam.