AI is taking the world by storm and the shares of technology firms are soaring in price in the stock market.

FPT share prices have escalated recently, turning it into the largest private corporation on the bourse.

On July 1, FPT shares were traded at VND128,600 per share. Cooperating with the world’s leading tech giants, such as Nvidia, FPT has seen its share prices soar proportionally with Nvidia share price increase. 

The price peaked on June 21, at VND136,100 per share. Prior to that, on June 18, Nvidia, for the first time, surpassed Microsoft and Apple to become the enterprise with the largest capitalization value in the world.

With the current prices, FPT is the third largest listed company in terms of capitalization, just after the two state-owned banks – Vietcombank and the Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam - BIDV (the two banks are among the top 4 biggest banks in Vietnam).

FPT, owned by president Truong Gia Binh, has surpassed Hoa Phat Group owned by billionaire Tran Dinh Long to become the No1 private economic group in Vietnam with capitalization reaching VND188 trillion as of July 1 ($7.4 billion), higher than Hoa Phat’s VND181 trillion.

In 2002, when FPT was equitized, it had initial capital of VND20 billion. By the end of the first quarter 2024, its stockholder equity had reached VND13 trillion.

After equitization, FPT experienced a fast growing period, but growth slowed down from 2007 to 2019, before it entered the explosive growth period some years ago.

In 2007-2019, FPT was still considered a powerful empire of the Vietnam’s software industry. However, during the 12 years, FPT share prices did not increase much, while a series of other enterprises made great strides, such as Vinamilk, the national dairy producer, and Vingroup, a realtor.

In April 2019, when Vingroup’s capitalization hit VND370 trillion, FPT’s was just VND29 trillion. Meanwhile, Temasek then bought into VNG, the tech giant that owns super-app Zalo, which was valued at over $2 billion. CMC Group, the direct rival of FPT Group, also saw a strong rise at that moment. 

However, FPT in the last four years, has made an impressive breakthrough and has outstripped Vingroup owned by the richest dollar billionaire Pham Nhat Vuong in the country in terms of capitalization value.

Hopes put on AI, semiconductors

In the past, FPT was the share that helped its holders get rich in the first period of the stock market. In 2006, FPT president Truong Gia Binh became the richest billionaire in the stock market with assets valued at VND2.4 trillion.

After a decade of quiet, in the second half 2020, FPT share prices began increasing, from below VND20,000 per share to VND60,000 in early 2022.

In 2023, FPT share prices once again stirred up the investor community when jumping from VND60,000 to around 130,000 per share. Since the beginning of 2024, FPT share prices have hit new peaks tens of times.

Investors now put high hopes on FPT, the tech giant which has announced its business strategy with focus on AI and semiconductors. 

FPT, like other tech firms, will benefit from the US and Vietnam upgrading their relationship to comprehensive strategic partnership in September 2023. The US wants to re-establish a hi-tech supply chain in certain countries.

In the last 1-2 years, Vietnam’s semiconductor industry has become busy with a series of tech giants, including Amkor Technology, Synopsys, Marvell and SK, announcing plans to make investments in semiconductor projects in Vietnam.

FPT Semiconductor has signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Silvaco on developing human resources for semiconductors and developing the business in this field.

There are two questions for FPT: how will FPT shares perform in the time to come? and will the ‘AI rush’ have positive impact on the tech firm?

Some experts believe that the US-based Nvidia will continue to speed up in its growth, and though current capitalization is very high, at VND3.3 trillion, it will still be able to reach $10 trillion.

In Vietnam, investors also put high hopes on FPT as a partner of Nvidia.

According to MB Securities, by joining hands with Nvidia, FPT will have long-term motivation for revenue growth because of generative AI.

Manh Ha