Vietnam has approved a $1 billion artificial intelligence and cloud infrastructure investment with Abu Dhabi-based G42 and a local consortium led by FPT Corporation and Viet Thai Group.
The project centres on building three data centres inside Vietnam to run AI and cloud workloads for government agencies and domestic enterprises, rather than relying on offshore hyperscalers. The structure addresses two pressures at once: rising demand for compute-intensive services and growing sensitivity around data control in Hanoi.
The partnership places domestic firms alongside a foreign infrastructure provider, signalling a preference for shared build-and-operate models over fully external platforms.
G42 brings large-scale AI infrastructure experience developed in the Middle East, while FPT supplies local engineering capability and government-facing delivery.
Viet Thai Group provides commercial reach across multiple sectors. The combination reflects Vietnam’s attempt to absorb foreign capital and expertise without handing over operational control of core digital systems.
Ali Al Amine, chief commercial officer at G42 International, framed the deal around sovereignty rather than scale. “We are grateful to the Government of Vietnam for their visionary leadership… for their commitment to building infrastructure that enables Vietnam to harness AI’s full potential while maintaining data sovereignty and digital independence,” he said.
The partners are now working through execution details, including how workloads will be split between public and private users and how public cloud services will be approved under Vietnam’s regulatory framework. Site development for the data centres is expected to begin once approvals are secured.
The agreement includes national AI training programmes spanning government, industry and universities — an acknowledgement that compute capacity alone will not drive adoption.
“We have KPIs this year to produce over 1 billion AI agents to boost our GDP,” he said, adding they could consume “close to 1 gigawatt of AI infrastructure”.
Chief executive Peng Xiao said the company plans to deploy AI at unprecedented volume, when he spoke at the World Economic Forum.
FPT chairman Dr Truong Gia Binh said Vietnam’s approach is pragmatic. “Vietnam clearly understands that it cannot move forward alone,” he said. “The leaders have shown strong commitment… and now it is time to turn those commitments into real implementation.”
David Thai, chairman and chief executive of Viet Thai Group, said the investment supports domestic economic priorities. “This initiative positions Vietnam at the forefront of AI-driven economic development in Asia, supporting the growth of the middle class in Vietnam.”