Viettel partners with NVIDIA to build sovereign AI ecosystem
Viettel Group has partnered with NVIDIA to develop a sovereign artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem in Vietnam, focusing on high-performance computing infrastructure and the development of Vietnamese AI foundation models.
As AI increasingly shapes the global economy, the ability to develop core AI technologies is becoming essential for national competitiveness. Viettel aims to strengthen domestic capabilities by building and operating advanced AI systems based on NVIDIA’s computing platforms.
One key element of the strategy is the deployment of the NVIDIA DGX B200, one of the world’s most powerful AI computing platforms. Viettel currently operates a cluster of 22 DGX B200 systems capable of delivering up to 1.5 exaFLOPs, or 1.5 quintillion calculations per second.
The high-performance system enables the processing of massive datasets and significantly shortens AI model training time. Operating the infrastructure at domestic data centres also allows Viettel to manage the full AI development cycle while ensuring sensitive data are processed securely within the country.
Building on this computing capacity, Viettel is developing Vietnamese large language models designed to better understand the country’s language, culture and regulatory environment.
These models are developed by adapting the architecture of NVIDIA Nemotron. The Nemotron-3 model features more than 30 billion parameters and can process context windows of up to one million tokens, enabling AI systems to retain large volumes of information and generate more accurate and context-aware responses in Vietnamese.
According to Viettel, the models are trained on carefully curated Vietnamese datasets, allowing them to capture linguistic nuances and real-world contexts specific to local users.
The collaboration also includes technical workshops between Viettel engineers and NVIDIA’s Nemotron team to optimise model training, fine-tuning and deployment, helping accelerate research and improve system performance.
Nguyen Manh Quy, director of the Data Services and Artificial Intelligence Centre at Viettel AI, said the partnership marks an important step in developing sovereign AI capabilities in Vietnam.
“AI is becoming an essential infrastructure similar to telecommunications. Working with NVIDIA gives us access to advanced technology while enabling Vietnamese engineers to develop and master AI models tailored to local needs,” Quy said.
The combination of NVIDIA’s AI infrastructure and Viettel’s understanding of local users has already produced practical applications, including AI assistants for legal services and public administration.
Viettel also plans to share its AI infrastructure and platforms with research institutes, businesses and start-ups, contributing to the development of a broader domestic AI ecosystem that can support the country’s digital transformation.