Vietnam turns chip sector magnet with affordable, quality talent pool - Nikkei Asia 

Visiting her old college in Vietnam, Tran Thi Ngoc Guong didn't expect all the students to be so curious about her industry: Chip design.

"People had so many questions, and they were so detailed," she said. "I was surprised."

One student confided that he had just switched to her major; another asked her about obscure matters like a "clock tree," a hardware design circuitry concept -- something she had never encountered when she was a student.

A lot has changed in the five years between Guong's graduation and her current position as senior engineer for physical design at U.S. chip developer Marvell. Now, fresh-faced Vietnamese students are jumping into semiconductors, and the government has a target of training at least 50,000 chip engineers and designers by 2030.

"I didn't think one day, I would end up in such a hot sector," Guong, 26, said at her desk in Ho Chi Minh City in southern Vietnam, adorned with photos of her dog, a Vietnamese book about TED Talks and medals from company fun-runs.

The heat comes from a combination of factors. One is the surging demand for chip engineers amid a boom in artificial intelligence. Supply chain shifts sparked by U.S.-China tensions are also driving up demand for local talent. Meanwhile, severe shortages of labor in traditional chip economies like South Korea and Taiwan, as well as the U.S., mean companies are looking further afield for engineers.

Alchip Technologies, Taiwan's leading provider of AI chip design services, is expanding its R&D team into Vietnam, where it is planning to open its first office this year. The company is likely to increase its headcount to up to 100 engineering staff in two to three years, CFO Daniel Wang said.

"After evaluating several Asian destinations for R&D team expansion, we realized that attracting talent in established tech economies like Japan might be challenging for [a company of] Alchip's size and scale, though we are also expanding there," President & CEO Johnny Shen said.

"Vietnam's promising pool of engineering talent and their strong work ethic make it a highly attractive option for us. We've been impressed by the dedication and commitment of Vietnamese engineers, who are eager to learn and contribute."

Also venturing into Vietnam in search of young engineers are GUC and Faraday Technology, affiliate chip design service providers for TSMC and UMC.

Likewise, South Korean companies are turning to Vietnam, partly to offset a brain drain in their home market.

"Now, it's so easy for smart people in our country to go to the U.S. after studying hard. Many of them join Nvidia with six-digit or even million-dollar paychecks," MetisX CEO Jin Kim said in a recent meeting between business leaders and Oh Youngju, Minister for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) and Startups. "We need to offer a competitive package, but a single company can't afford it by itself."

In addition to subsidies for R&D, executives at the meeting called for an education system aimed at training foreign staff and a loosening of visa rules to attract them. The country that came up most often in the discussion: Vietnam.

Making the grade

South Korea's BOS Semiconductors upgraded plans for its presence in Vietnam after being impressed by the quality of local engineering talent. (Photo by Shinya Sawai) 

South Korea's BOS Semiconductors entered Ho Chi Minh City in 2022 to set up a support team. But as executives jetted between Vietnam and Korea, comparing the two sets of staff, the quality of Vietnamese engineering convinced them to upgrade the team.

"They realized this could be a main R&D center," country manager Lim Hyung Jun said in an interview. "That was really unexpected."

BOS designs AI chips, including for autonomous driving, for automotive clients like Hyundai. Lim said reaching one goal, that of having a system on a chip (SoC) designed in Vietnam, would demonstrate local ingenuity.

"It can shape the market trend," he said.

BOS Semiconductors' Design Manager Nguyen Hung Quan, center, works in the company's R&D center in Ho Chi Minh City. (Photo by Shinya Sawai) 

There are about 50 staff members at the Ho Chi Minh City office, including design manager Nguyen Hung Quan. He said his colleagues are "very excited" to work on matters like high-speed data transfer, which is helping them learn more skills.

"In Vietnam we're at the R&D stage," Quan said. "Production is really hard and expensive, but this will put us in that direction."

BOS compatriot ADTechnology runs two research centers in Ho Chi Minh City.

The availability of tech workers in a time of shortage could help Vietnam achieve one of its long-held dreams: moving up the tech value chain.