Vietnam Report recently released the PROFIT500 ranking, listing the top 500 most profitable enterprises in Vietnam in 2025. Viettel surpassed PetroVietnam to become the most profitable enterprise in 2025.

The military industry and telecoms group has seen consistent profit growth since 2021, reaching a historic high in 2024.

With huge earnings, PetroVietnam, VinGroup, and Viettel contributed VND77,400, VND56,200, and VND46,300 billion, respectively, to the state budget in 2024. These were the top three enterprises in terms of budget contribution.

However, the composition of these contributions clearly shows the strategic advantage of tech-based industries over those relying on natural resources.

Each company’s contribution can be divided into two parts: specific taxes related to their field (such as natural resource tax or special consumption tax for oil and gas firms, or land-use taxes for real estate firms), and taxes derived from profit (corporate income tax and profit transfer to the state from state-owned enterprises - SOEs).

The most profitable company 

The second part is often considered the demonstration of business performance, showing that a company creates high economic value without relying heavily on natural resource exploitation.

While Viettel ranks third in absolute tax contribution, its structure is the most favorable. Of the VND46,300 billion contributed to the state budget, a large portion (VND38,000 billion) comes from corporate income tax and retained profits. This figure outpaces other companies with contributions above VND10,000 billion.

Notably, among the top 10 contributors to the state budget, Viettel is the only tech company. This highlights not only its effective business model in recent years but also demonstrates that tech development is an efficient direction with substantial economic returns.

Nguyen Van Phung, former Director of the Large Enterprise Tax Department (now part of the Large Business Tax Division, Department of Taxation), said that sustainable state revenue must rely on the development of enterprises and business operations.

“In this list, I must say, Viettel, a state-owned enterprise, is one I have very high trust in. It truly deserves to be called a ‘child of people’, born from people, and serving people,” he said.

Investing in R&D 

Viettel has a "clean" profit structure, but also enjoys one of the most effective R&D investment mechanisms among SOEs. Under the Politburo-approved framework in 2023, Viettel can reinvest up to 30 percent of its post-tax profit into R&D, focusing on core technology and national defense.

This is a rare allocation rate among SOEs, reflecting the strategic trust that the Party and the State place in Viettel as a pillar in developing high-tech industry and modern national defense.

Thanks to this sustainable investment, Viettel has developed core technologies in telecom, digital tech, defense industry, and in the semiconductor sector.

Recent achievements show that Viettel’s R&D efforts have gone far beyond ideas or lab prototypes. Their products have a real presence in the market and in national strategic deployments.

During the recent military parade commemorating the 80th anniversary of the August Revolution and National Day on September 2, some of Viettel’s high-tech military equipment was showcased, including the S-125-VT surface-to-air missile and the Truong Son anti-ship missile.

Earlier this year, Viettel also introduced its semiconductor chip and exported 5G network equipment at Mobile World Congress 2025, the world’s largest mobile technology event.

In the next five years, Viettel aims for 12-14 percent annual growth, with high-tech industry and digital technology exports expected to grow 25-30 percent annually.

If these targets are achieved, Viettel’s R&D budget will further expand, fueling investment into technologies defined as national priorities under Resolution 57.

Speaking to the media, a Viettel representative shared that the group aims to master nine out of 11 national strategic tech categories, while forming new high-tech business sectors. 

These include semiconductors (especially specialized chips), 5G-Advanced and 6G, missiles, satellites, aircraft and UAVs, among others. All these fields are scheduled for development within five years.

With high revenue, strong profits, a transparent R&D reinvestment mechanism, and proven product effectiveness, Viettel is clearly establishing itself as a backbone enterprise, not only in terms of economic contribution, but also in national defense and security.

Thai Khang