Vietnamese telco Viettel says it has broken ground on its 16th data centre, which it claims will also be the biggest data centre in Vietnam upon completion and one of the ten biggest in Southeast Asia.
The facility – billed as the High-Tech Data & Research and Development Centre – is being built on almost four hectares of land in Tân Phú Trung Industrial Park in the Cu Chi district of Ho Chi Minh City.
At the groundbreaking ceremony last week, Viettel said the new Tier III data centre will be designed with about 10,000 racks and a IT load capacity of 140MW to handle AI and other hyperscale workloads.
That would make it the first data centre in Vietnam to exceed 100MW of capacity, and put in among the ten largest data centres in Southeast Asia when the facility is completed in 2030, Viettel said. The first phase of the facility is slated for operations by the first quarter of 2026.
According to state media, Võ Văn Hoan, vice chairman of HCM City People’s Committee, said the data centre will be a “driving force” for Ho Chi Minh City’s digital infrastructure development, smart urban planning and e-government initiatives.
“This centre will accelerate the adoption of advanced technologies, including AI, 5G networks, cloud computing, IoT, blockchain, cybersecurity and big data," he was quoted as saying. "It will also contribute to building an innovation ecosystem, enhancing digital workforce quality and generating high-value jobs that support the city’s digital economy and society development.”
Viettel launched its first AI-ready data centre in Hanoi in April 2024. At the time, Viettel chairman and general director Tao Duc Thang said Viettel plans to invest VND10 trillion (US$400.88 million) to expand its combined data centre capacity to 17,000 racks by 2025, and another VND40 trillion to reach 34,000 racks by 2030.
Vietnam is one of a number of Southeast Asian countries aiming to be a regional data centre hub. The country has been attracting significant investment towards that end for at least the past three years.
Last month, Saigon Asset Management (SAM) revealed plans to launch a data centre campus in southern Vietnam with a targeted investment of up to US$1.5 billion, whilst also launching a US$300 million fund to boost data centre investment in the country.
SAM CEO Louis Nguyen Nguyen told The Edge Malaysia that there is an estimated 200MW of data centre capacity in Vietnam, and the country will need to double that in the coming years to meet demand from foreign companies.
