Lê Quang Đạm, CEO Marvell Technology Việt Nam. The company has committed to investing more and more in Việt Nam for long-term success. Photo courtesy of Lê Quang Đạm

Đà Nẵng has been speeding up preparations for hosting strategic investors with long-term projects in the semiconductor and AI sectors. The CEO of Marvell Technology Việtnam,Lê Quang Đạm, talked to Việt Nam News about the company’s investment and commitments to the city.

Tell me what has been the progress that Marvell Việtnam has made in operating in Việt Nam and Đà Nẵng? What have been the advantages and disadvantages in building your development plan in Đà Nẵng and Việt Nam?

Marvell Vietnam was established in HCM City in October 2013 with the charter of providing the research and development services for Integrated Circuit (IC). Over the past 11 years, Marvell has consistently expanded its footprint in term of the headcount, number of the offices and geographic locations. From one single office of a dozen employees in HCM City, Marvell Vietnam currently has three offices in HCM City and one in Đà Nẵng City with near to 500 employees.

The firm commitment of investment in Việt Nam is based on a strong engineering talent pool, especially in the field of IC Design, cost effectiveness for investment, thirdly stable socio-geopolitics and finally a rich and dynamic culture. In the past few years, Việt Nam government has created many clear policies and made huge investments in infrastructure to attract more investment. Marvell has definitely strong commitment to invest more and more in Việt Nam for the long-term success.

Why did Marvell decide to land in Đà Nẵng for its investment? How has Đà Nẵng supported Marvell?

The situation in Đà Nẵng City has changed rapidly recently. With strong commitment from the City government, Đà Nẵng attracts so much attention and investment from national and international companies. Marvell is one of them.

We do see excellent opportunity to invest there with great talent pool, solid infrastructure, clear direction and support from government. For the long term, Marvell has firm commitment to do business and investment in Đà Nẵng City. Marvell Vietnam is an R&D centre without production teams.

What is the advanced technology that Marvell could bring to help develop Đà Nẵng as a centre of semiconductor and AI in the region?

Đà Nẵng City sign a series of Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) on development of semiconductor and AI with strategic investors during the annual Semicon Day. VNS Photo Công Thành

While several semiconductor companies have constraints or limited resources to do the projects with advanced technology in Việt Nam, Marvell has created excellent opportunities for the engineers in Việt Nam to work with the leading-edge technologies such as 5nm, 3nm, 2nm node, extremely low power and high-speed projects, etc. Together with the other semiconductor companies, Marvell Vietnam is helping develop Đà Nẵng City as a key R&D centre of semiconductor and AI excellence in the central region.

What is the latest project that Marvell will begin working at Đà Nẵng? How many employees, especially engineers are employed for the project?

In Đà Nẵng City, Marvell opened an R&D centre with approximately 50 engineers in May 2024. Those engineers are very talented and have been working on the most important projects related to AI data centre (electrical and optical connectivity, high speed networking, data storage controller, security). 

An UAV, which is developed by a project in Đà Nẵng, is on display at an exhibition on semiconductor and AI in the city. VNS Photo Công Thành

Can you share your expectations about the future cooperations with Đà Nẵng?

I am really excited about the prospect of collaborating with Đà Nẵng. I believe that this partnership could bring meaningful benefits to the city and its people. As you know, AI and semiconductor are leading-edge technologies that Marvell has focused on for several years. Our talented engineers in Đà Nẵng City have worked on those key projects and significantly contributed to Marvell success. We expect further expansion in our workforce in Việt Nam in the coming years.