Reuters: Vietnam's First Chip Fab May Miss 2027

Vietnam’s first chip fabrication plant will probably not start trial production in 2027 as planned, a person with direct knowledge of the project told Reuters. The plant, being built by military-run Viettel on the outskirts of Hanoi, also has no deal yet for chipmaking equipment from ASML, according to three people familiar with the talks.

Viettel disputes the account. In a statement to Reuters, the telecoms and defence group said the project was “progressing in line with the established plan and schedule”. It added: “Project activities are being carried out in phases, in accordance with the project’s technical and implementation requirements. We will provide further updates at an appropriate time.”

In brief

A source told Reuters the 2027 trial run would probably not happen on time; Viettel says the project is on schedule.
Three people told Reuters that talks with ASML have gone on for months without a deal.
Reuters says the site near Hanoi still has no buildings.

What Reuters’ sources say

The person who spoke to Reuters blamed two things: Viettel’s lack of experience in building chip factories, and administrative hurdles in securing government funding quickly. The project, which the government ordered, is still going ahead, the person said, but its timeline is unclear. The person was not authorised to speak to the media.

Reuters reported that when it visited the site last week, it was covered in wild vegetation. It said satellite images taken by Planet Labs in January and by Airbus in October show that no buildings have gone up. The authorities have estimated the cost of the plant at about $1.3bn, Reuters reported.

Vietnam’s finance ministry did not respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.

What Viettel promised in January

Viettel broke ground on 16 January, with Communist Party General Secretary To Lam and Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh at the ceremony, according to the government’s news portal. The portal says the government assigned the task to the Ministry of National Defence, with Viettel carrying it out.

The target was set out by Viettel’s chairman and chief executive, Lieutenant General Tao Duc Thang. “Immediately after today’s groundbreaking ceremony, the Group will begin implementing the project, with the set objective that by the end of 2027 we will complete the construction, receive technology transfer, and begin pilot production,” he said, in Viettel’s press release. The years from 2028 to 2030 were set aside for refining processes and improving line efficiency. Viettel said the plant would serve sectors including aerospace, telecoms, the Internet of Things, cars, medical devices and automation. It described chip fabrication as the one stage of the chipmaking chain that Vietnam cannot yet do at home.

Months of talks with ASML, and no deal

Three people told Reuters that Viettel has been in talks with ASML, the Dutch maker of chip-printing machines, for months. Two of them said the talks covered a deep ultraviolet (DUV) lithography machine, which prints circuit patterns onto silicon wafers. Reuters said it could not learn why no agreement has been reached, or which type of DUV machine was discussed. ASML declined to comment on the talks.

ASML said in its third-quarter results this month that its planned supply for 2027 and 2028 will not fully meet customer demand, driven by AI spending. Reuters noted that supply of older-generation equipment is expected to be less tight. Nothing in the reporting links that shortage to the Viettel talks.

A 2027 trial run needs a building first

The January plan put construction, technology transfer and a first pilot run inside two years. Reuters’ description of the site, with no buildings nine months later, is what makes the source’s warning hard to dismiss. A fab is not a shell that can be finished quickly; the cleanrooms have to be built and certified before tools such as a lithography scanner can be installed and calibrated. Viettel’s statement does not contradict Reuters’ account of the site. It says the work is being done in phases, without saying what has been done on the site. Viettel has not said when construction will begin, who will provide the technology transfer, or whether the scanner has been ordered.

The money has its own deadline

Funding is the second hurdle the source named. A National Assembly resolution passed in February 2025 offers central-budget support for the country’s first chip plant, but only if it is accepted into production before the end of 2030, the government’s e-newspaper reported. That makes 2030 the date that matters for the state support on offer, and a slip in the trial run may matter less than a slip in the line itself. Vietnam is better known for the back end of chipmaking, the packaging and testing where Samsung is reported to be planning a memory-chip testing plant, the kind of capacity KYEC is building for NVIDIA in the US. A fab is a harder build, and speed is a worry even for incumbents: SK’s chairman has said Korea must build its fabs faster.

The first sign that Viettel is on schedule will be a signed order with ASML.