The Trillion-Dollar Goldmine in the AI Era: Viettel, FPT, VNG, and CMC in a Race to Dominate

In recent years, Vietnam has been recognized as one of the top ten fastest-growing data center and cloud computing markets in the world, especially after the cloud and data center industries were identified as the pillars of digital transformation.

According to a report by BlueWeave Consulting, the Vietnamese data center market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 10.8% during the forecast period from 2023 to 2029, reaching a value of $1.14 billion by 2029.

Currently, according to DC Byte, the data center capacity in Vietnam is still relatively small compared to other countries in the Asia-Pacific region, with a capacity of 143 MW, while India has 6,283 MW and Japan has over 4,000 MW. A report by JLL states that Vietnam currently has 30 data centers, with 13 centers in Hanoi, 13 in Ho Chi Minh City, 2 in Danang, and 2 in Binh Duong.

According to Viettel IDC, 97% of data centers in Vietnam are owned by four domestic telecommunications and technology companies. Among them, Viettel accounts for 49%, VNPT holds 20%, FPT has 18%, and CMC has a 10% share.

The Vietnamese data center market is experiencing robust growth due to increasing digitization, enhanced adoption of cloud technologies, expanding e-commerce, and government support for technology infrastructure. This has led to a surge in demand for data storage and processing, attracting investments and driving the rapid expansion of the Vietnamese data center market. Recently, several Vietnamese technology companies have embarked on building data centers.

On July 3rd, CMC Corporation (CMG), a leading technology group, established a wholly-owned subsidiary named CMC AI Infrastructure Company (CMC ADI). CMC ADI will be headquartered in the Tan Thuan Export Processing Zone in Ho Chi Minh City’s District 7, with an initial chartered capital of VND 300 billion, which will increase according to the scale and financial plan of the hyperscale data center project.

This project, which CMG plans to present to shareholders at the upcoming annual general meeting on July 25th, is a significant development for the company.

In June, FPT Telecom Joint Stock Company (FOX) also announced the establishment of FPT Thang Long Telecommunications One-Member Limited Liability Company, a wholly-owned subsidiary, to undertake the HN03 Data Center project.

Earlier in May 2024, ST Telemedia Global Data Centres (STT GDC) and VNG Corporation (VNG) announced a collaboration to build and operate international-standard data centers in Ho Chi Minh City. This partnership includes the continued operation of STT VNG Ho Chi Minh City 1 (formerly VNG Data Center) and the establishment of a new data center, STT VNG Ho Chi Minh City 2, located 1.5 km from the first facility in the Tan Thuan Export Processing Zone.

STT VNG Ho Chi Minh City 2 is designed to provide up to 60MW of power capacity and offers access to essential power substations, telecommunications networks, transportation and logistics hubs, commercial and industrial centers, and neighboring provinces via the outer ring road of Ho Chi Minh City.

In April, Viettel, Vietnam’s leading telecommunications company, inaugurated its largest data center in Hoa Lac, with a scale of 21,000 m2, 2,400 racks, and an electrical capacity of 30 MW, making it twice the size of the largest data center currently in operation in Vietnam.

With the addition of this 14th data center, Viettel now operates a total of 230,000 servers, 81,000 m2 of floor space, 11,500 racks, and 87MW of electricity, comparable to a world-class hyperscale data center.

“Viettel will continue to invest in data centers. By 2025, we plan to expand our capacity to 17,000 racks, and by 2030, we aim to reach 34,000 racks,” affirmed Mr. Tao Duc Thang, Chairman and CEO of Viettel, at the opening ceremony.