Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang reportedly told Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh the company is keen to establish a manufacturing centre in the nation to take advantage of its growing semiconductor sector.

State-owned Vietnam Government Portal reported the US-based chipmaker considers the country an important market for chip production and has already invested $25 million there.

The news outlet noted Vietnam already has a strong presence in domestic and international companies in terms of engineering staff.

Vietnam is also increasingly being tapped by companies looking to ease their reliance on Chinese manufacturers.

Huang visited the country after Japan, where he said Nvidia aims to partner with local companies to build a number of factories to cater to local demand for graphics chips for AI projects, Bloomberg reported.

The executive also visited Malaysia last week, during which YTL Power International unveiled plans to partner with Nvidia to build a MYR20 billion ($4.3 billion) AI data centre in Johor.

YTL Power International’s telecoms unit YTL Communications will own and manage the data centre, which is scheduled to come on line in mid-2024.