Investor Group to put $200 Million into Hanoi Chip-Packaging facility

23:10 - 02/05/2017

Mercury News -

The newly formed Vietnam-Chipscale Advanced Packaging Services, or V-Caps, will be led by a group of semiconductor executives with valley ties. The announcement was made during the first-ever Vietnamese Strategic Ventures Network conference in Palo Alto, where hundreds of investors, tech executives and entrepreneurs gathered for two days to discuss new opportunities in the economically rising Southeast Asian nation of 84 million people.

Conference speakers agreed that, risks of investing in any developing country aside, Vietnam is increasingly seen as a new destination for tech outsourcing and even some high-end services. The government forecasts its economy will grow at 9 percent this year.

The cost of doing business in Vietnam is about half of that of China, said Sanford Garrett, one of the seed investors in V-Caps. He is president of the Garrett Group Technology in San Francisco, a financial consulting firm.

"That Vietnam is inexpensive in and of itself is not the driving force for going there," he said. "When you look at Vietnam and the culture of the people, what you find when you dig deeper is a value system that is based on loyalty, creativity, knowledge, curiosity, tenacity - all of these give Vietnam an endearing advantage over most other countries."

The 300,000-square-foot factory will be in the new Hoa Lac High Tech Park and will employ up to 1,500 workers. V-Caps will consider building two more similar facilities, as well. The company will assemble and test chip packages for semiconductor companies for an array of products, from cell phones to personal computers.

V-Caps founder Harry Rozakis, who most recently was chief executive of Milpitas- and Hong Kong-based chip-assembly company Asat, began scouting Vietnam four years ago after taking a vacation to the country.

"I said, `This place is incredible. I think it will be the next Asian giant,' " he recalled.

He will travel between the United States and Vietnam as he continues to raise funding for the company, which he launched nearly two years ago.

Eventually, Vietnamese executives will run the on-the-ground operations, Garrett said. "We believe in a strong local presence and a strong contribution to host countries," he said. "Otherwise, there is no way you can be successful."

In a boost to Vietnam's nascent tech economy, Silicon Valley investors announced Friday they are sinking as much as $200 million into a new chip-packaging plant in Hanoi.

Investor Group to put $200 Million into Hanoi Chip-Packaging facility

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