Representatives of the organisers exchange a memorandum of understanding at the launch ceremony for the Viet Nam AI Innovation Challenge on Thursday. — Photo tuoitre.vn

HÀ NỘI — Việt Nam will host its first nationwide AI-native hackathon in July, bringing together up to 3,000 developers to build artificial intelligence (AI) products for real business problems as the country pushes to strengthen its digital economy and AI workforce.

The event, called the Viet Nam AI Innovation Challenge, will take place in Đà Nẵng from July 17-19 under the broader Viet Nam Innovation Challenge 2026 programme.

Organisers include the National Innovation Centre (NIC), Meta, the AI for Vietnam Foundation and Duy Tân University.

According to organisers, the event will be the first AI-native hackathon held on a national scale in Việt Nam, where participants will not only write code but also develop AI products capable of solving business problems in real time.

The programme is expected to attract between 2,000 and 3,000 developers and young engineers, who will work in teams to create AI solutions within 48 hours.

The hackathon will focus on building deployable AI products rather than coding exercises or academic projects. Companies and organisations will provide practical business challenges for participants to solve.

Speaking at the launch event, the head of Investment Promotion and Strategic Technology at the National Innovation Centre said the programme was designed to connect Việt Nam’s AI capabilities with practical challenges faced by businesses and local authorities.

He said the initiative would open up challenges in manufacturing, logistics, public services, education, health care and smart cities for the AI community to tackle through deployable solutions.

The programme comes as Việt Nam accelerates efforts to develop AI capabilities under Resolution 57, a national policy aimed at advancing science, technology and digital transformation.

Organisers said the initiative is intended to help create a workforce capable of building AI systems, not simply using them.

Mentors and advisers will include AI researchers, engineers and technology founders from organisations such as Google Research, Stanford University, TikTok, NVIDIA and Instagram, according to organisers.

Among them are Huyền Chip, a lecturer at Stanford University and former engineer at NVIDIA and Snorkel AI; Bùi Duy Quốc Nghị of Google Research, who worked on Google’s Gemini AI ecosystem; and JP Trần of TikTok, formerly an engineer at Google and Intuit.

Participants will attend a five-week boot camp before the competition, covering AI product design, AI agents, product strategy and fundraising.

Winning teams may secure pilot projects with partner companies, opportunities to present at national innovation events and access to regional and global AI networks, including programmes in Singapore and Silicon Valley.

Applications are now open for developers, university students and technical professionals interested in applying AI to commercial and industrial use cases. — BIZHUB/VNS