How CMC is Laying the Groundwork For Vietnam's AI Ambitions
CMC Corporation, Vietnam's second largest tech company, has announced it has received official approval to build a US$250m data centre in Ho Chi Minh City.
Backed by the Saigon Hi-Tech Park (SHTP) Management Board, the CMC Hyperscale Data Centre will serve as the digital foundation for Vietnam’s AI-powered ambitions and part of a broader strategy to connect the country to global tech networks.
An "AI heart" for Vietnam's tech sector
Positioned at the eastern edge of Ho Chi Minh City, the facility marks the beginning of what CMC calls the country’s ‘AI heart’.
The centre is designed to serve as a powerhouse for AI workloads, cloud computing, big data processing and cybersecurity — all requiring expansive and scalable computing environments.
The centre begins operations with a 30MW power capacity which can expand to 120MW, aiming to support AI development, large-scale digital services and next-gen enterprise systems.
It forms part of CMC’s broader ecosystem strategy, integrating with its existing cloud platform and AI stack, developed entirely in Vietnam.
These systems encompass a GPU farm with more than 1,000 Nvidia GH200 units, alongside multiple Uptime Tier III-certified data centres that serve as core pillars in the regional tech network.
"AI will usher in a new era in which it profoundly affects society, the economy and all facets of daily life," says Nguyen Trung Chinh, President of CMC.
"In CMC's development strategy and business plan, artificial intelligence is becoming essential. Specifically, we anticipate that by 2028, the Corporation would employ 15,000 IT engineers, of which 6,000 are AI engineers, making up 40% of our human resources."
Infrastructure with speed, scale and sustainability
CMC’s design incorporates a broad suite of next-gen connectivity standards. Technologies like XGS-PON (10 Gigabit-capable Symmetrical Passive Optical Network), SD-WAN (Software-Defined Wide Area Network), SASE (Secure Access Service Edge), and 800G DWDM (Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing) optical transmission are set to ensure that data moves securely and efficiently across every network layer.
A standout feature of the project is the use of digital twin technology — creating a live, virtual replica of the physical data centre.
This allows for real-time monitoring and optimisation of operations, critical in hyperscale environments where efficiency and resilience are paramount.
In terms of environmental strategy, CMC places a clear emphasis on green infrastructure.
Renewable energy sources will be prioritised from the onset, with the goal of creating a facility that meets international green data centre standards.
By investing early in energy-efficient systems and water-saving technologies, CMC aims to avoid environmental pitfalls typically associated with large-scale computing.
Laying the groundwork for Vietnam's AI ambitions
CMC’s long-term aim is to create infrastructure capable of both supporting Vietnam’s internal digital transformation and attracting global AI and cloud enterprises.
This project represents an upgrade in all areas of the country’s data centre industry — technically, environmentally and strategically — and positions Vietnam more prominently on Southeast Asia’s data centre map.
Much of the infrastructure underpins CMC’s homegrown technology stack.
The company's 100% Vietnamese-developed cloud platform, CMC Cloud, offers enterprise-level services throughout the country.
Meanwhile, its C.OpenAI ecosystem integrates 25 core AI technologies, including large language models (LLMs), computer vision, voice processing and a data lakehouse framework.
These technologies are already being commercialised, with products like C.Face, C.OCR (SmartDocs) and CLS legal assistant making a mark in the market.
Notably, the CATI-VLM model, developed by CMC ATI, achieved a top 12 global ranking in the 2025 Robust Reading Competition, surpassing technology giants such as Amazon Textract, GPT-4 Vision Turbo, Baidu and Deepseek.
The project’s value lies not just in its scale but in its long-term vision.
From the start, CMC has aimed to be a trailblazer in Vietnam’s data centre landscape with this investment.
By building an open technology ecosystem of CMC Cloud — which includes AI, big data and cybersecurity — the company is poised to develop and enhance core capabilities such as a GPU farm with more than 1,000 Nvidia GH200 units and multiple Uptime Tier III-certified data centres.