Billionaire's firm to launch $44 mln fund for machine learning, AI in Vietnam

By Bich Ngoc August 22, 2018 | 06:59 pm PT

Vingroup's upcoming scientific fund will focus on fields such as machine learning or artificial intelligence.

VinGroup has announced a research fund worth VND1 trillion ($44 million) for its Institute of Big Data to focus on fields like machine learning and artificial intelligence.

To be set up next year, it will be helmed by Professor Vu Ha Van of Yale University in the U.S. for the first three years.

Van said the fund would not only help train and educate scientists and students in applied science, but also support universities and scientific institutions in developing science projects for societal benefit.

Van has been a member of the Vietnam Institute for Advanced Study in Mathematics since 2011.

He is regarded as one of the world’s leading mathematicians in probability and statistics and number theory.

VinGroup is one of Vietnam’s largest conglomerates with interests in sectors like retail and real estate.

Its owner and board chairman, Pham Nhat Vuong, is Vietnam's first billionaire. He now ranks 237th in Forbes' world billionaire list, with assets worth $6.8 billion.

Recently his company announced its intention to become a tech-centric corporation by 2028, focusing on fields such as software, material science and artificial intelligence.