OpenInfra Foundation and CNCF communities joined forces in Hanoi for KCD + OpenInfra Days Vietnam, reflecting the natural convergence of cloud native and open infrastructure technologies as organizations increasingly deploy Kubernetes and OpenStack together.

If there was one theme that defined the event, it was sovereign AI.

Nearly every keynote touched on some aspect of sovereignty: where AI runs, where data is stored, who controls the underlying infrastructure and how Vietnam can build its growing digital economy without becoming dependent on infrastructure controlled elsewhere.

That reflects a much larger shift taking place across Vietnam.

Sovereignty Moves to the Center

Vietnam is quickly emerging as one of Asia's most strategic markets for sovereign cloud and AI infrastructure.

The country's economy grew 8.02% in 2025 and another 8.18% during the first half of 2026. Foreign direct investment reached $24.81 billion during the first five months of 2026, up nearly 35% year over year. At the same time, Vietnam's digital economy now represents roughly 20% of GDP.

But the bigger story for OpenInfra is how Vietnam intends to build that digital economy.

Vietnam's new National Digital Transformation Strategy explicitly connects the country's digital development with technological self-reliance, national digital sovereignty, data sovereignty and control of strategic technologies. Its National Data Strategy similarly calls for greater domestic capability across AI infrastructure, high-performance computing and core data platforms.

These priorities are already affecting infrastructure investment. Data localization requirements are creating demand for domestic cloud and data center capacity, while Vietnamese operators are investing heavily in infrastructure designed to keep sensitive workloads and data under local control.

Vietnam also starts from an unusual position. Approximately 97% of its cloud market is controlled by four domestic providers: Viettel, VNPT, FPT and CMC. Rather than trying to reverse years of dependence on foreign hyperscalers, Vietnam has an opportunity to build much of its next generation of cloud and AI infrastructure under domestic control from the beginning.

That makes open infrastructure particularly relevant.

Open Source for the AI Era

Jonathan Bryce, Executive Director of OpenInfra Foundation and CNCF, delivered a keynote on Open Source for the AI Era: OpenInfra, CNCF and the Future of AI Infrastructure.

His keynote connected many of the themes we heard throughout the event: AI, cloud native infrastructure and digital sovereignty.

As AI moves into production, the infrastructure underneath it becomes increasingly important. Kubernetes provides the cloud native runtime for AI applications, while OpenStack and other OpenInfra technologies provide the underlying compute, networking, storage, GPU virtualization and workload isolation.

For countries thinking seriously about sovereign AI, controlling that infrastructure layer matters. Jonathan's keynote connected sovereignty directly with where models run, who controls inference, compute sovereignty and national AI capability.

The message aligned closely with Vietnam's own direction: AI sovereignty starts with infrastructure.

Viettel Anchors Open Infrastructure Leadership in Vietnam

While in Hanoi, the OpenInfra and Linux Foundation team met with OpenInfra Platinum and CNCF Gold Member Viettel at its Viettel Networks headquarters for discussions about its continued investment in the OpenInfra and cloud native communities.

Viettel became OpenInfra Foundation's first Vietnamese Platinum Member in December 2025 and also joined CNCF as a Gold Member. The move represented an important shift from simply consuming open source technologies toward investing in and helping shape the upstream communities behind them.

Our discussions focused on Viettel's continued commitment to OpenInfra and CNCF and the role it can play in anchoring Vietnam's growing open infrastructure community.

That leadership is particularly important as Vietnam invests in sovereign cloud and AI. Viettel has an opportunity to demonstrate what it looks like for one of the country's largest technology companies to pair domestic infrastructure leadership with meaningful participation in the global open source communities building the technologies underneath it.

Growing the OpenInfra Vietnam Community

We also met with OpenInfra Foundation Silver Member FPT Smart Cloud at its headquarters to discuss its work with OpenStack and opportunities for greater engagement with the global OpenInfra community.

FPT is already operating significant production AI infrastructure on OpenStack. Jonathan highlighted the company during his keynote as a local example of OpenStack supporting AI at scale, including approximately 2,000 NVIDIA H100 and H200 GPUs across Vietnam and Japan.

As FPT expands its position as a global technology provider, there is an opportunity to build on that technical work through deeper participation and investment in the upstream community.

More broadly, Viettel's leadership and FPT's growing engagement point toward what can come next. Vietnam already has a strong community of OpenStack and Kubernetes users and operators. The opportunity now is to bring more of the country's major infrastructure providers into leadership roles within the global communities behind those technologies.

Building the Next Generation of Infrastructure

The biggest takeaway from KCD + OpenInfra Days Vietnam was not simply the size or enthusiasm of the local open source community. It was how closely the priorities of that community now align with the strategic direction of the country itself.

Vietnam wants to build AI capability. It wants domestic cloud and data center capacity. It wants control over its data and critical digital infrastructure. And it increasingly views technological self-reliance and digital sovereignty as national priorities.

Open source infrastructure provides a natural foundation for that strategy.

OpenStack, Kubernetes and the broader OpenInfra and CNCF ecosystems give Vietnamese companies the ability to build infrastructure they can operate and control while continuing to participate in global technology communities.

Viettel has already taken an important leadership position. FPT and other major Vietnamese technology companies have an opportunity to follow.

The OpenInfra Vietnam community has been growing for years. As sovereign AI and digital sovereignty move to the center of Vietnam's technology strategy, we expect that community, and Vietnam's leadership within the global open source infrastructure ecosystem, to continue to grow.