Vietnam Unveils First Locally Designed IoT Chip as CT Group Targets Full Production Chain by 2030

A Vietnamese Chip Design With a Bigger Industrial Goal

CT Group unveiled Vietnam's first domestically designed Internet of Things (IoT) chip in Ho Chi Minh City on June 29, 2025, linking a new product to an ambitious target: mastering the entire semiconductor value chain by 2030. The launch took place during the diversified Vietnamese conglomerate's 33rd anniversary celebration.

A team of Vietnamese experts engineered the chip for applications including unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), smart devices, telecommunications and defense. Its development marks a step in Vietnam's effort to become a creator of advanced electronics while building a more independent semiconductor industry.

IoT refers to devices that collect information and exchange it through connected systems. In CT Group's planned applications, chips would help sensors, cameras and energy equipment turn information from their surroundings into data that a digital system can process.

CT Group currently follows a fabless model: it designs chips in Vietnam and has specialized foundries abroad manufacture them. The June launch therefore sits at the design stage of a broader industrial effort. The company's next ambitions extend to production processes, assembly, packaging and testing within Vietnam.

Vietnam's government has identified semiconductors as a strategic industry for economic modernization, digital transformation and national security. CT Group's chip launch brings together those national priorities and the company's plans for research centers, factories, university partnerships and markets at home and overseas.

The central challenge is to connect those pieces. A successful design needs a dependable manufacturing route, skilled workers and customers who can use the finished product. CT Group is pursuing all three through its semiconductor business and its existing technology operations.

What Is Inside the Chip?

CT Group's IoT chip is based on CMOS and III/V semiconductor technologies, which support the creation of powerful, energy efficient electronic components. The company intends to use these technologies across applications that need to process signals, communicate and operate reliably.

CMOS stands for Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor. It is a foundation of most modern integrated circuits, valued for low power consumption and scalability. In simple terms, it allows electronic circuits to perform useful work while limiting their electricity needs, and it can support increasingly complex designs.

III/V semiconductors use elements from groups III and V of the periodic table, such as those combined in gallium arsenide. Their greater electron mobility means electrons can move through the material more readily, making these semiconductors useful for applications involving high speeds and high frequencies.

The combination of these technologies is intended to support demanding uses in artificial intelligence (AI), telecommunications and defense. For a connected device, processing capability and energy use both matter: the chip must handle information while fitting the operating needs of the equipment around it.

CT Group is also concentrating on proprietary intellectual property (IP) cores. These are reusable building blocks within a chip design. Developing them gives the company greater control over the functions it puts into its products and supports its goal of reducing reliance on imported technology.

The modules under development include Analog-to-Digital Converters (ADCs), Digital-to-Analog Converters (DACs), signal processors and neural processing units (NPUs). Each performs a different task, from translating information into digital form to processing signals or carrying out calculations used in AI.

Why the Converter Designs Matter

ADCs connect the physical world to digital electronics. They convert analog signals, such as sound, temperature or light, into digital data that a chip or computer can process. A sensor system needs that translation before software can interpret what it has measured.

DACs work in the opposite direction. They turn digital data into analog signals that can control equipment such as speakers or motors. Together, these two types of converter help electronic systems receive information and produce a physical response.

Healthcare, automotive systems, defense and smart agriculture all use these kinds of functions. Their importance comes from the same basic requirement: digital equipment must communicate with a world in which sound, light and other measurements vary continuously.

Signal processors handle the information moving through these systems. NPUs provide processing capability for neural networks, the computational systems used in many AI applications. Developing these modules alongside converters gives CT Group a broader set of building blocks for future designs.

CT Group's chairman, Tran Kim Chung, said the company completed its ADC chip design in six months, compared with a typical development period of two years. He credited the motivation associated with Resolution No. 57-NQ/TW, which focuses on breakthroughs in science, technology and innovation.

For the first time, we've launched the ADC chip design, a chip of great importance for Vietnam in the spirit of Resolution 57. Typically, this chip would take two years to complete, but we tried and reduced it to just six months to meet the spirit of Resolution 57. That's precisely the power of Resolution 57, which has made everyone excited.

Six months is one quarter of two years. On the chairman's comparison, the company shortened the development period by 18 months. The ADC work also shows why ownership of individual chip components is part of CT Group's wider ambition for design autonomy.

From Overseas Manufacturing to Domestic Production

CT Group's current fabless approach allows it to concentrate on design while specialized manufacturers abroad produce the chips. This model is common among emerging semiconductor companies because building and operating fabrication plants requires substantial capital and technical expertise.

A fabrication plant, often called a fab, makes the semiconductor structures that form a chip. Designing those structures and manufacturing them are separate tasks, with different equipment, skills and investment needs. CT Group's 2030 goal is to bring more of those tasks into its own industrial capabilities.

Photolithography is a central part of that ambition. The process transfers circuit patterns onto silicon wafers, helping create the tiny structures needed for chips to function. CT Group is investing in the development of photolithography capabilities and has proposed cooperation between public and private partners to build the necessary infrastructure in Vietnam.

The company's intended domestic chain includes design, photolithography, assembly, packaging and testing. Assembly and packaging prepare chips for use in electronic products, while testing checks their performance. CT Group expects greater integration of these activities to strengthen supply security and improve Vietnam's position in the global semiconductor market.

The launch and the longer industrial target fall on different parts of the company's timetable:

• June 29, 2025: CT Group unveiled the IoT chip in Ho Chi Minh City during its 33rd anniversary celebration.
• By 2030: CT Group aims to master the entire semiconductor value chain.

The chip introduction is a completed event; the wider production chain remains a company goal. No opening dates were given for the planned factories and research centers.

Factories, Research Centers and Overseas Connections

CT Semiconductor, CT Group's semiconductor arm, is constructing three assembly, testing and packaging (ATP) plants. Two are in southern Vietnam and one is in the north, creating a planned industrial presence across both regions.

Two research and development (R&D) centers are also being established, one in Ho Chi Minh City and the other in Hanoi. These centers form part of the infrastructure intended to support the group's move from chip design toward a broader range of semiconductor activities.

CT Group is setting up customer care centers in Silicon Valley and Phoenix in the United States. Their purpose is to support international collaboration and access to global markets, connecting the company's Vietnamese operations with partners and customers overseas.

The combination of factories, research centers and customer operations addresses different needs within the same business. Research supports product development, ATP plants prepare and check chips, and customer centers support relationships with potential users and international partners.

CT Group's plans also rely on people who can work across those stages. Equipment alone cannot create a semiconductor industry: engineers must design the circuits, technicians must operate production processes, and researchers must develop the next generation of products.

Where CT Group Expects the Chips to Be Used

CT Group intends to supply both its own technology businesses and external customers. Internally, the chip is expected to support AI cameras, smart energy modules and sensor devices used in smart city projects.

The group's smart city ecosystem combines monitoring systems powered by AI, energy control modules and sensors of a new generation. These applications create demand for chips that can collect information, process it and help connected equipment respond.

CT Group's position in the UAV sector provides another application and testing ground. UAVs, commonly called drones, bring together electronic functions that fit the company's interest in sensors, signal processing and connected devices.

External target markets include defense, public security, telecommunications and UAVs. For these sectors, the company sees a secure and reliable domestic supply of semiconductor technology as a strategic priority.

Its internal technology operations give CT Group places to apply its chip designs while it seeks customers beyond the group. That connection between chip development and intended uses is central to its business strategy: the semiconductor work is being built alongside products and systems that could use it.

How National Policy Supports the Ambition

Vietnam's semiconductor strategy seeks to build domestic capability and reduce dependence on foreign technology. The government views the industry as part of a wider effort to modernize the economy, expand digital systems and support national security.

Resolution No. 57-NQ/TW focuses on breakthroughs in science, technology and innovation. CT Group's achievements have been cited as a model for putting that direction into practice, with the accelerated ADC design presented as an example of the effect of focused policy and institutional support.

Vietnam's leadership has also enacted foundational laws and decrees supporting science, technology and innovation. These include special incentives for research driven by data and measures to attract overseas Vietnamese and foreign experts.

The government's wider commitment is to a society that makes greater use of data and digital technology. Special mechanisms to attract and retain skilled people in AI and semiconductors are part of that effort, connecting national development goals with the workforce needs of companies such as CT Group.

Vietnam aims to train 50,000 semiconductor engineers by 2030. The target is intended to support an ecosystem of research centers, technology enterprises and innovation hubs, giving the industry a larger pool of people capable of designing and developing advanced electronics.

Universities and an Innovation Hub Build the Talent Pipeline

CT Group is working with the University of Technology (VNUHCM) and Can Tho University, alongside international experts and members of the Vietnamese diaspora. These partnerships are intended to develop the skilled workforce needed for sustained semiconductor growth.

The company has launched training programs for chip design and ATP technicians. It has also introduced programs to attract young talent, including competitive salaries and incentives for outstanding students.

International cooperation gives CT Group access to advanced knowledge and established working practices. Collaboration with overseas Vietnamese experts and global partners is intended to speed technology transfer and connect Vietnam more closely with international innovation activity.

CT Group's CT Innovation Hub 4.0 brings research, development and commercialization into a connected ecosystem. It links researchers, entrepreneurs and industry partners, providing a meeting point for academic work and business needs.

Within its first two months of operation, the hub welcomed more than 100 delegations. CT Group presents that activity as part of its effort to spread innovation and connect universities with industry.

The training programs and the hub address related needs. Universities develop technical knowledge, while companies need people who can apply that knowledge to products, production processes and customer requirements. CT Group's partnerships are intended to strengthen that connection.

Vietnam's Progress and the Work Still Required

Vietnam's semiconductor sector has attracted major international companies, including Intel and onsemi, which have established advanced packaging and R&D centers in the country. Their presence forms part of a growing industrial ecosystem around the national semiconductor strategy.

The government's ambition is to make Vietnam a key participant in the global semiconductor supply chain. A young workforce, a strategic location and growing technical expertise are among the strengths supporting that effort.

Vietnam still faces a shortage of highly skilled engineers, limits in infrastructure and strong competition from established chipmaking centers such as Taiwan and South Korea. CT Group's investment plans and the government's training target respond to some of those needs, while cooperation between public and private partners is gradually helping address the gaps.

Malaysia and Singapore provide regional examples of countries that have built competitive semiconductor industries through sustained investment, talent development and international cooperation. Vietnam's own effort follows those same broad priorities while seeking to develop its domestic strengths.

CT Group has also proposed designating April 30 as Vietnam Semiconductor Day. The proposal is intended to highlight the industry's national importance and encourage unity and pride in Vietnam's technological progress.

The June 29 launch gives that ambition a concrete product around which to organize. Its longer term value will depend on the company's ability to connect domestic design with manufacturing capability, skilled workers and demand for the resulting chips. The target is a Vietnam that produces more of the technologies it uses, supported by international cooperation and stronger capabilities at home.

Key Points

• CT Group unveiled Vietnam's first domestically designed IoT chip in Ho Chi Minh City on June 29, 2025, at its 33rd anniversary celebration.
• The chip uses CMOS and III/V semiconductor technologies and targets smart devices, UAVs, telecommunications and defense.
• CT Group is developing proprietary converters, signal processors and NPUs to reduce reliance on imported technology.
• The company designs chips locally and outsources manufacturing abroad, with a goal of mastering the full semiconductor value chain by 2030.
• CT Semiconductor is constructing three ATP plants, while two R&D centers and customer care centers in the United States are being established.
• Chairman Tran Kim Chung said the ADC design took six months, compared with a typical two years, and credited the motivation from Resolution 57.
• Vietnam aims to train 50,000 semiconductor engineers by 2030, supported by university partnerships, training and international collaboration.
• Talent shortages, infrastructure limits and competition remain challenges, while CT Group has proposed April 30 as Vietnam Semiconductor Day.