Vietnam's AI companies in October 2026

Vietnam's AI companies sell products for language learning, lending, medical imaging, retail and public services. Some grew inside large technology groups, including FPT, Viettel, VNPT and VNG. Others were founded around a particular application. Vietnamese founders have also established businesses overseas, among them ELSA in the United States and Trusting Social's Singapore parent.

Investment increased in 2025. The Vietnam Innovation & Private Capital Report 2026, published by the National Innovation Center, Vietnam Private Capital Agency and Boston Consulting Group, records US$130 million across 23 AI deals, up from US$80 million across 13 deals in 2024. Its methodology includes financing beyond conventional venture equity [1].

Figure 1. EFFOMA chart based on the NIC, VPCA and BCG report [1]. Annual sector totals under the report's methodology.

Open the full-size investment chart

The companies below were selected for their products, financing or established presence in Vietnam. Sources were checked through 16 October 2026. Funding dates are shown alongside the amounts; older rounds remain part of a company's history.

Founders, products and financing

Corporate founding dates, the establishment of an AI unit and product launches are listed separately where the sources distinguish them. A dash in the financing column means no separate amount was established in this review.

Figure 2. EFFOMA schematic based on the company sources in the table. Firms can appear in several categories; this is not a market-share or partnership map.

Open the full-size company map

FPT, Viettel and VNPT

FPT Smart Cloud was established in August 2020. It sits within a group that can fund infrastructure and sell services to existing enterprise customers. In April 2024, FPT announced plans to invest US$200 million in an AI factory in collaboration with NVIDIA. The proposed spending covers computing infrastructure; it is FPT's investment commitment, rather than a venture round financed by NVIDIA [2], [3].

In October 2026, FPT signed an MOU with NAVER Cloud covering AI infrastructure, access to models and deployment engineering. It extends FPT's plans for the business, although the agreement itself does not establish how much additional capacity has been installed [4].

Viettel AI has a longer institutional history. Its predecessor, the Viettel Cyberspace Center, was established in 2014. The AI Platform website followed in 2018, and the unit took the Viettel AI name in 2023. Its official history lists a legal assistant launched that year, civil-service pilots in 2024 and further government-facing assistants in 2025 [9].

VNPT's electronic identity verification product, eKYC, was launched in September 2020. It extracts information from identity documents and compares a live face with the portrait on the document. Those operations allow identity checks to be incorporated into a digital service. The launch date belongs to the product; the source does not give a separate founding date for a VNPT AI company [13].

VinAI and VinBrain

Hung Bui founded VinAI as a research institute in April 2019. Its 2024 company profile describes a subsequent move toward commercial products, including driver and occupant monitoring and systems that help drivers see around a vehicle. These applications use computer vision to interpret people and their surroundings from camera images [6].

Qualcomm acquired MovianAI, VinAI's former generative-AI division, in April 2025. Hung Bui joined Qualcomm with the acquired team. The announcement identifies that division as the subject of the transaction; it does not describe a purchase of all VinAI's automotive activities. No acquisition price was given [5].

VinBrain was founded in 2019 by Steven Trương, also known as Trương Quốc Hùng. NVIDIA confirmed its acquisition in December 2024. NVIDIA's account describes medical diagnostics using multimodal health data, meaning information drawn from more than one type of medical record or observation. This was a separate company and transaction from Qualcomm's purchase of MovianAI [7], [8].

AI Hay and VNG

AI Hay was founded in 2022 and launched its consumer product in May 2024. Its founders are Duc Tran, Chuong Nguyen and Hiep Nguyen. The service combines AI-generated answers with Vietnamese information and community participation [14], [16].

Its July 2025 Series A raised US$10 million, led by Argor Capital, with Square Peg and other investors participating. The announcement described plans for web access, education and entertainment features, and AI companions. These were the proposed uses of the financing at the time of the round [15].

VNG, founded by Lê Hồng Minh in 2004, has an established consumer business through Zalo. Its AI activities include Vietnamese speech technology, the Kiki automotive assistant and cloud services. In its Q2 2026 results, VNG reported 30,000 Kiki Auto Premium registrations and 271% year-on-year growth in AI Cloud revenue [10], [12].

The release also groups revenue under “Zalo & AI,” a category that includes messaging. It therefore does not provide a standalone AI revenue figure. The registration and growth numbers are VNG's own disclosures for that quarter.

ELSA, Trusting Social and Palexy

ELSA was founded in 2015 by Vu Van and Xavier Anguera. It is headquartered in the United States and has a Vietnam office. Its English-learning software analyses speech to identify pronunciation errors, giving learners feedback on sounds they need to practise. ELSA AI Tutor adds conversational practice: a learner can take part in an exchange while the system generates responses and feedback [17].

The company announced a US$23 million Series C in September 2023, led by UOB Venture Management, alongside the AI Tutor launch. The release described international and business expansion plans.

Trusting Social was founded in 2013. Its leadership page names Nguyen Nguyen as founder and CEO and Tuyen Huynh as cofounder and CTO. The business supplies credit insights, identity services and customer-acquisition tools to financial institutions. Credit-risk models can help a lender assess applicants whose conventional credit records contain little information [18].

In April 2022, Masan subsidiary Sherpa invested US$65 million for a 25% stake in Trusting Social Company JSC in Vietnam. Masan's announcement identifies the Vietnam subsidiary as the entity involved. Trusting Social's international parent is based in Singapore [19].

Palexy was founded in 2019. Its team page names Thong Do as founder and CEO and Minh Truong as cofounder and CTO. Do previously founded Arimo, which Panasonic acquired in 2017. That earlier transaction belongs to his career history, rather than Palexy's financing [21].

Palexy uses computer vision to turn store-camera footage into retail analytics, combined with point-of-sale and other operational data. Its current product range includes analytics, compliance and staff operations. Do Ventures and Access Ventures co-led its US$1 million seed round, announced in December 2020 [20], [21].

Independent comparisons of camera-derived counts with store records would help establish how well such systems work across different retail layouts.

References

[1] National Innovation Center, Vietnam Private Capital Agency, and Boston Consulting Group, Vietnam Innovation & Private Capital Report 2026, 2026. Accessed: Oct. 16, 2026. [Online]. Available: https://web-assets.bcg.com/cc/84/ed0559de455884b1f77e4e082f94/8pm-270526-final-vietnam-innovation-private-capital-report-2026-eng.pdf

[2] FPT, "FPT to Shape the Future of AI and Cloud on a Global Scale in Collaboration with NVIDIA," Apr. 23, 2024. Accessed: Oct. 16, 2026. [Online]. Available: https://fpt.com/en/news/fpt-to-shape-the-future-of-ai-and-cloud-on-a-global-scale-in-collaboration-with-nvidia

[3] FPT, "FPT Appoints New Deputy CEO of FPT Smart Cloud and CEO of FPT Online," Sep. 21, 2026. Accessed: Oct. 16, 2026. [Online]. Available: https://fpt.com/en/news/fpt-appoints-new-deputy-ceo-of-fpt-smart-cloud-and-ceo-of-fpt-online

[4] FPT, "FPT and NAVER Cloud Form Strategic Alliance to Fuel AI Innovation Across Asia-Pacific and Beyond," Oct. 2026. Accessed: Oct. 16, 2026. [Online]. Available: https://fpt.com/en/news/fpt-and-naver-cloud-form-strategic-alliance-to-fuel-ai-innovation-across-asia-pacific-and-beyond

[5] Qualcomm, "Qualcomm Expands Generative AI Capabilities With Acquisition of VinAI Division," Apr. 2025. Accessed: Oct. 16, 2026. [Online]. Available: https://www.qualcomm.com/news/releases/2025/04/qualcomm-expands-generative-ai-capabilities-with-acquisition-of-

[6] VinAI, "Company profile," 2024. Accessed: Oct. 16, 2026. [Online]. Available: https://www.vinai.io/wp-content/uploads/2024-VinAI-Company-Profile.pdf

[7] University of Toronto Engineering, "New VinBrain Fellowships to empower research in AI and robotics." Accessed: Oct. 16, 2026. [Online]. Available: https://alumni.engineering.utoronto.ca/news/new-vinbrain-fellowships-to-empower-research-in-ai-and-robotics/

[8] NVIDIA, "Thailand, Vietnam Embrace Sovereign AI to Drive Economic Growth," Dec. 6, 2024. Accessed: Oct. 16, 2026. [Online]. Available: https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/thailand-vietnam-sovereign-ai/

[9] Viettel AI, "About us." Accessed: Oct. 16, 2026. [Online]. Available: https://viettelai.vn/en/ve-chung-toi

[10] VNG, "VNG bổ nhiệm ông Lê Hồng Minh làm Chủ tịch HĐQT." Accessed: Oct. 16, 2026. [Online]. Available: https://vng.com.vn/news/enterprise/vng-bo-nhiem-ong-le-hong-minh-lam-chu-tich-hdqt.html

[11] Zalo, "Zalo AI Summit." Accessed: Oct. 16, 2026. [Online]. Available: https://zalo.me/en/post/zalo-ai-summit/

[12] VNG, "VNG Q2/2026: Lợi nhuận thuần từ hoạt động kinh doanh sau điều chỉnh đạt 467 tỷ đồng; AI mở rộng trên toàn hệ sinh thái," Jul. 30, 2026. Accessed: Oct. 16, 2026. [Online]. Available: https://vng.com.vn/news/press-release/bctc-q2-2026.html

[13] VNPT Media, "VNPT chính thức ra mắt Giải pháp định danh điện tử eKYC," Sep. 2020. Accessed: Oct. 16, 2026. [Online]. Available: https://www.vnptmedia.vn/tin-tuc/202009/vnpt-chinh-thuc-ra-mat-giai-phap-dinh-danh-dien-tu-ekyc-fc75b16/

[14] Square Peg, "AI Hay investment announcement," Jul. 2025. Accessed: Oct. 16, 2026. [Online]. Available: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/square-peg-capital_were-thrilled-to-continue-backing-the-team-activity-7345938958712717313-lxqA

[15] TNGlobal, "Vietnam's AI Hay secures $10M in Series A funding round led by Argor Capital," Jul. 2, 2025. Accessed: Oct. 16, 2026. [Online]. Available: https://technode.global/2025/07/02/vietnams-ai-hay-secures-10m-in-series-a-funding-round-led-by-argor-capital/

[16] VnExpress, "AI Hay, startup AI tạo sinh Việt Nam, gọi vốn thành công 10 triệu USD," 2025. Accessed: Oct. 16, 2026. [Online]. Available: https://vnexpress.net/startup-ai-tao-sinh-viet-nam-goi-von-thanh-cong-10-trieu-usd-4908883.html

[17] ELSA, "Leading Language App ELSA Raises $23M C Round, Launches ELSA AI Tutor to Revolutionize Learning English Using Generative AI," Business Wire, Sep. 12, 2023. Accessed: Oct. 16, 2026. [Online]. Available: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230912548387/en/Leading-Language-App-ELSA-Raises-23M-C-Round-Launches-ELSA-AI-Tutor-to-Revolutionize-Learning-English-Using-Generative-AI

[18] Trusting Social, "About us." Accessed: Oct. 16, 2026. [Online]. Available: https://trustingsocial.com/about-us/

[19] Masan Group, "Masan partners with Trusting Social," Apr. 28, 2022. Accessed: Oct. 16, 2026. [Online]. Available: https://www.masangroup.com/news/press-releases/masan-partners-with-trusting-social-to-accelerate-consumer-tech-vision/

[20] Do Ventures, "Palexy raises $1 million in the seed round of financing led by Do Ventures and Access Ventures," Dec. 12, 2020. Accessed: Oct. 16, 2026. [Online]. Available: https://doventures.vc/en/insights/news/palexy-raises-1-million-in-the-seed-round-of-financing-led-by-do-ventures-and-access-ventures

[21] Palexy, "Team." Accessed: Oct. 16, 2026. [Online]. Available: https://www.palexy.com/team