Vietnam builds chip factory

The 27-hectare plant is being built by Viettel in the Hoa Lac Hi Technology Park in the suburbs of the capital. Works and technology transfer should be completed at the end of 2027, when trial production will begin.

Production process adjustments and equipment modernization should be completed by 2030, Viettel, which is operated by the Vietnamese military, announced.

– The new plant for the production of chips will enable Vietnam to work in all six stages of the value chain of semiconductors, including the technologically complex process of producing wafers, which is not yet in use in our country – the announcement reads.

The plant will carry out research, design, production and testing of chips intended for economic sectors such as the aerospace sector, telecommunications, medical equipment production and the automotive sector.

The value of the investment has not been announced.

In the new plant, Viettel intends to build capacities for the integration of the latest technologies in the future, said company director Tao Duc Thang.

As part of a broader strategy, the Vietnamese government plans to train 50 thousand chip design engineers by 2030 and to increase the number of employees in the semiconductor sector to over 100 thousand by 2040, Reuters notes.

Vietnam has recently profiled itself as a center for semiconductor testing and assembly services and has attracted major companies such as Intel, Samsung Electronics, Amkor Technology, Qualcomm and Marvell Technology.

The final stage of semiconductor production, which includes assembling, testing and assembly of chips, is still dominated by China and Taiwan, but Vietnam is making great strides.

Vietnam’s share in the world’s capacity for assembling, testing and assembling chips was only one percent in 2022, and by 2032, according to forecasts, it should jump to eight to nine percent, according to a 2024 report by the American Chip Manufacturers Association and Boston Consulting Group.