UAE artificial intelligence company G42 has signed a framework agreement with a Vietnamese consortium to develop sovereign artificial intelligence capabilities and cloud infrastructure across the South-East Asian country.
The consortium, comprising FPT Corporation and Viet Thai Group, has committed to build three data centres in Vietnam with “consumption commitments” of up to $1 billion, as the country pushes to become a leading AI hub in South-East Asia, G42 said on Monday, without disclosing further details.
Under the agreement, the consortium and G42 will deploy “significant” cloud capacity across the three data centre locations in Vietnam, delivering AI and cloud services to support public and private sector workloads, it said.
The agreement represents “a new model for national AI transformation – one built on sovereignty, partnership, and purpose”, said Ali Al Amine, G42 International’s chief commercial officer.
G42 has been at the forefront of the UAE's AI growth strategy.
In May last year, the company teamed up with technology giants OpenAI, Oracle and Nvidia to create a major AI hub in the emirate to accelerate local development of the technology.
Last month, the company unveiled a new operating model that will allow states to deploy sovereign artificial intelligence securely. The framework ensures that national laws govern data and systems, even when infrastructure is hosted or operated beyond a country’s physical borders.
Last week, G42 said it is developing national infrastructure for autonomous AI systems, alongside plans to build a large-scale computing centre in the UAE, which will be capable of producing up to 100 trillion tokens – which are smaller units of data – per day.
The project is being developed in collaboration with Microsoft and complements major AI infrastructure initiatives such as the 5-gigawatt Stargate AI campus in Abu Dhabi, which is estimated to cost more than $30 billion and is being positioned to be the largest data centre outside of the US.
In October 2023, G42 unveiled a new entity, Core42, that merged three of its key units – G42 Cloud, its research and development arm Inception and ICT unit Injazat – to focus on delivering AI solutions and services on a national scale.
It also announced a partnership with OpenAI, focusing on using its models in verticals where G42 operates, including financial services, energy, health care and public services.
The latest move comes as the UAE continues to expand its technological footprint, especially in AI, which is being harnessed for its transformative potential for economies and societies.
The Vietnam agreement aligns with G42’s broader mission to build a global and inclusive “intelligence grid”, interconnecting advanced AI infrastructure, cloud platforms, and governance frameworks to enable AI capabilities on demand, while respecting national sovereignty, the company said on Monday.
G42 has been building the intelligence grid framework that defines how large-scale AI infrastructure is built, interconnected, and governed at both national and global levels.
“Vietnam clearly understands that it cannot move forward alone. In areas such as semiconductors, AI, cloud computing, big data, and cyber security, we need strategic alliances with partners we can rely on and trust,” said Truong Gia Binh, chairman of FPT Corporation.
The next steps for the consortium and G42 will be to secure regulatory approvals for public cloud adoption, and commencing site development for data centre infrastructure, G42 said, adding that the initiative is expected to generate significant economic impact through direct infrastructure investment and job creation.
