This year, U.S. chipmaker Nvidia CEO Huang Renxun has made frequent appearances across Asia, meeting with politicians, entrepreneurs and scientists, and laying out a wide range of collaborations around semiconductor chips and artificial intelligence (AI).。Now it seems that Nvidia has reaped a lot.。

A few days ago, Nvidia has announced cooperation or investment plans in Japan, Singapore and Malaysia, and on December 11, Huang said the company plans to set up a base in Vietnam to help develop the local semiconductor industry.。

Come prepared: Nvidia's cooperation with Vietnam is well under way.

Vietnam had planned to "achieve chip design autonomy by 2025 and chip manufacturing autonomy by 2023," and Huang's trip came as he was catching up with the expansion of Vietnam's semiconductor chip field.。

It is reported that Vietnam has established a strategic partnership with the United States as early as September this year, and Vietnam and the United States issued a joint statement announcing that innovation and development of the semiconductor chip industry and AI are the top priorities of cooperation between the two countries.。According to a document at the time, Nvidia has partnered with Vietnam's leading technology companies (such as FPT, Vingroup, Viettel, etc.) to deploy AI technology in the cloud, automotive and healthcare industries.。

On December 7, Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh met with John Neuffer, Chairman of the U.S. Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), and both sides spoke highly of the potential for cooperation between the two countries in the field of semiconductor chips, agreeing to promote a delegation of U.S. semiconductor companies to Vietnam to learn about investment opportunities and assist in connecting companies from both countries.。

On the same day, at a Vietnam-US symposium on "Vietnam's semiconductor chip industry infrastructure readiness," Nguyen Chi Dung, Minister of Planning and Investment (MPI) of Vietnam, stressed that "Vietnam is ready to carry out semiconductor chip industry investment cooperation projects with foreign enterprises and will offer the most favorable conditions."。Vietnam has established a National Innovation Center (NIC) in the Hole High-Tech Zone to fully support the development of its semiconductor chip industry.。

According to statistics, there are currently about 11 universities in the country that have STEM courses closely related to the semiconductor and microchip industries, and 35 universities have training or related conversion programs in the industry.。Nguyen Van Phuc, Vice Minister of Education and Training, said the ministry will develop a semiconductor chip training plan and a special mechanism to attract professionals to strengthen the human resources team.。

In this situation, Vietnam is very attractive to the global semiconductor supply chain.。

After the symposium, NIC signed three memorandums of understanding (MoUs) with U.S. partners to enhance design capabilities, product development and human resource training in the semiconductor chip industry.。

on december 10, huang renxun met with vietnamese prime minister phan minh。Nvidia has invested about 2 in Vietnam.US $500 million, and proposed to establish a research and development base in the country to attract talents from all over the world, support the development of semiconductor and AI ecosystems, and vigorously promote Vietnam's digitalization process。

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chung suggested that Nvidia should focus on infrastructure investment cooperation in Vietnam, build training institutions, research and development centers, design centers, develop semiconductor chip products and AI technology, and carry out semiconductor engineer training programs, and the Vietnamese government will provide strong support.。

At present, Vietnam's semiconductor chip industry has about 6,000 engineers, and the goal is to train 50,000 high-quality engineers by 2030, especially semiconductor chip design professionals.。

On December 11, Vietnam's Ministry of Planning and Investment hosted a symposium on "Semiconductors and Artificial Intelligence"。At the meeting, Huang discussed cooperation agreements in the semiconductor chip field with local technology companies and the government, and made it clear that Nvidia will establish a semiconductor base and legal entity in the country, regarding Vietnam as the company's "second home."。Nvidia is expected to reach a technology transfer agreement with at least one Vietnamese company, sources said.。

Minister Nguyen Chi Dung said Vietnam has been preparing relevant mechanisms and incentives for cooperation to attract blockbuster investment projects in the semiconductor and AI industries.。

"Vietnam has good education and infrastructure, and Nvidia is willing to work with Vietnam to improve AI skills and infrastructure."。"Huang Renxun said。

Love fits: Nvidia's Southeast Asia layout is widely acclaimed

During this trip to Southeast Asia, in addition to Vietnam, Huang also visited Singapore and Malaysia.。

According to local media reports in Malaysia, Nvidia has reached a strategic partnership with Yang Chung Lai Power (YTL Power), which will operate in Malaysia at 20 billion Malaysian ringgit (about 42.$900 million) to build an AI data center and deploy NVIDIA H100 GPUs, which are expected to bring the fastest supercomputer into the country by mid-2024 to build a Malay-based large language model (LLM)。

In Singapore, Nvidia did not announce investment plans, but it was revealed that Huang's visit to Singapore was invited by the country's Economic Development Board (EDB) and that he had recently said he might "announce some large investment plans" in Singapore.。In the quarter ended October, Nvidia's revenue from Singapore rose 401% year-on-year to about $2.7 billion, accounting for 15% of total revenue.。

For Nvidia, Southeast Asia is becoming an increasingly important market as a "growing technology hub."。Vietnam is already the fourth leg of Huang's Asian tour, and it's not clear if it's the last leg, but it's enough to show Nvidia's determination in its Southeast Asian layout.。

Before visiting Southeast Asia, on December 4, Huang went to Tokyo for talks with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, and later said that Nvidia would work with major Japanese technology companies (such as SoftBank) to develop generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), promising to prioritize Japan's GPU needs.。

Another analysis points out that Nvidia's trip to Asia may also be looking for potential partners。At the recent UBS Global Technology Conference, Nvidia Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress suggested that TSMC and Samsung are both important partners for Nvidia, and that the company is considering adding other potential wafer foundries。

As of now, Nvidia has more than 2.70,000 employees, nearly $27 billion in operating income。As global AI becomes more and more popular, the group will increase its 2024 AI chip production plan to more than three times, and it is expected that future operating income will increase significantly.。