Ho Chi Minh City-based fund Saigon Asset Management (SAM) has launched a $1.5 billion data center project in the southern province of Binh Duong, aiming to capitalize on Vietnam’s growing demand for digital infrastructure.
SAM will partner with the Vietnam Singapore Industrial Park (VSIP), a Singapore-backed major industrial park developer, to implement the project, called the SAM DigitalHub.
The data center, with a designed capacity of 150 MW, will cover 50 hectares at the VSIP and is expected to begin operations in two years. Once completed, it will be the biggest data center in Vietnam.
The Vietnam-Singapore Industrial Park I in Binh Duong province, southern Vietnam. Photo courtesy of VSIP.
SAM is seeking potential investors, including local banks, to finance the project, SAM’s CEO Louis Nguyen said.
Recently, SAM debuted the $300 million Vietnam Data Center Fund (VDCF) to prepare for the project, with the first closing scheduled by Q4 this year.
According to a report by Cushman & Wakefield, Vietnam’s developing data center capacity is approximately 92 MW, with an average construction cost of $6.9 million per MW. To meet future demand, the country will need to attract around $640 million in investment over the next five to seven years.
Vietnam’s data center market is still in its early stages, with the lowest population-to-MW ratio in the Asia Pacific region (1.83 million people per MW). However, with a population exceeding 100 million and an average GDP growth rate of 6.25%, the market presents significant growth potential in the coming years, said Trang Bui, country head of Cushman & Wakefield Vietnam.
To support long-term growth, the Vietnamese government should continue improving its digital infrastructure, including terrestrial and submarine cable connectivity, ensuring reliable and uninterrupted power supply, and fostering a policy framework conducive to data center expansion, she suggested.
Foreign investors of offshore wind power projects in Vietnam can sell their projects, and wholly state-owned enterprises (SOEs) or subsidiaries of those SOEs are prioritized to buy them.
The transaction is only permitted if the Vietnamese investors in the company refuse to purchase, according to the government’s Decree 58/2025 on renewable and new energy, effective from March 3, 2025.
Transactions of a part of an offshore wind project or an entire project must comply with the Electricity Law 2024 and other laws related to investment, enterprises, and sea.
They must be approved by the Ministry of National Defense, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Ministry of Industry and Trade if there is involvement of foreign investors.
A sea-based wind power project in Tra Vinh province, Mekong Delta, southern Vietnam. Photo courtesy of Trungnam Group.
In cases of not-yet operational projects, the foreign buyers must meet the following requirements.
First, they must have experience in investing and developing at least one offshore wind power project that is operational in Vietnam or in the world. “Experience” includes direct investment, contributing a minimum 15% of the project’s total investment capital, and the ratio of equity to capital contribution being at least 20%.
Second, the foreign buyers must ensure that the offshore wind power project has the participation of domestic enterprises with at least 5% of chartered capital or voting shares of the company that implements such projects. The “domestic enterprises” must be wholly state-owned enterprises (SOEs) or firms with SOEs holding more than a 50% stake.
Third, they must commit to utilizing domestic supplies (workforce, service, products) during their investment, construction and operation, on the basis of ensuring competitiveness of prices, quality, schedule, and available capability.
For operational projects, the transations must meet the “second” requirement mentioned above.
The 15th National Assembly (NA) on June 27 passed the law on national defence-security industry and industrial mobilisation in its ongoing seventh plenary session.
Specifically, all the 464 deputies present in the sitting, or 95.47% of the total number of deputies, said “yes” to the law.
The law comprises seven chapters and 86 articles.
Article 80 in the draft law proposed earlier about the responsibilities of People’s Court was removed, while Article 28 was added on the development of technologies with dual purposes and Article 71 on training, research, and expert exchanges to serve defence-security industry.
Good Way Technology, a Taiwan-based original design manufacturer (ODM) specialized in computing and mobile peripherals, will invest $15 million more in Vietnam.
In a recent filing with the Taipei Exchange (TPEx), Good Way Technology said it would invest $15 million in Good Way Cayman and then reinvest the entire amount in its sub-subsidiary Good Way Technology Vietnam.
The construction site of Good Way Technology factory in Thai Binh province, northern Vietnam. Photo courtesy of Lao Dong (Labor) newspaper.
The purpose of the move is “long-term investment,” according to the filing.
Good Way Technology Vietnam received an investment certificate for the project in October 2023. In February 2024, it kicked off the construction of a $45 million factory in the northern province of Thai Binh.
The factory, located in the Lien Ha Thai Industrial Park, will manufacture peripheral devices like USB connectors for computers. It will have an annual capacity of 3.7 million items.
Construction of the project’s first phase is scheduled for completion in Q3/2024, enter trial production the next quarter and start official production in Q1/2025.
Corresponding times for the second phase will be Q4/2026, Q1/2027 and Q2/2027.