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Sr. Col. Cao Anh Son speaks at the event. |
Initiated by Viettel in 2025, the Viettel AI Race is an artificial intelligence competition that provides a platform for the tech community to solve problems stemming from the practical needs of businesses.
After two editions, the Viettel AI Race has attracted thousands of tech enthusiasts nationwide. In 2026, the competition drew over 1,600 teams with nearly 2,900 registered participants. Notably, 65 contestants are currently living and studying in 13 countries.
This year’s competition featured three challenges, namely Base Transceiver Station (BTS) Digital Twin (reconstructing 3D digital twins for BTS), Ontological Reasoning in Medical Knowledge Retrieval (retrieving and reasoning medical knowledge), and Large Language Models (LLM) Inference Optimization (optimizing the operation of LLM).
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The first prize presented to team Tensara in the BTS Digital Twin challenge |
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The first prize presented to team 7 co & 10 gio in the Ontological Reasoning in Medical Knowledge Retrieval challenge |
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The first prize presented to team Moe in the LLM Inference Optimization challenge |
The Viettel AI Race 2026 consisted of three rounds. The online qualifying round took place from July 2 to 30, followed by the preliminary round in Ha Noi from August 17 to 19, where 24 teams competed in a hackathon format.
The final round was held from September 9 to 11 in Da Nang city, where 12 outstanding teams continued to perfect their products before presenting and defending them before an expert panel.
Through the competition, Viettel aims not only to find the winning teams but also to contribute to nurturing AI talent, opening up technological resources to the community, and seeking potential solutions to be further perfected and applied after the competition.
Speaking at the event, Viettel’s Deputy General Director Sr. Col. Cao Anh Son affirmed that through the Viettel AI Race, the group aimed to create an environment where artificial intelligence was evaluated not merely by models or scores, but by the ability to comprehend practical challenges, master core technologies, and deliver viable solutions. He expressed his belief that with access to appropriate resources, the community’s collective intelligence could develop solutions extending far beyond the scope of a competition, paving the way for broad applications across businesses, sectors, localities, and the country as a whole.
Assoc. Prof., Dr. Do Phan Thuan, Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Information Technology of Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry and Trade, stated that the competition offers a major opportunity for young technology talents to work with real-world problems and data. These challenges force participants to address complex situations without ready-made solutions, allowing them to test their skills, maturity and confidence in a real-world environment.
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Awards presented to promising teams |
For participating teams, the Viettel AI Race provided them a valuable opportunity to access computing infrastructure as well as highly practical problem statements.
At the event, Viettel announced the most outstanding teams across the three challenges, including team Tensara, team 7 co & 10 gio, and team Moe. Each challenge awarded one first prize, worth VND 200 million, and three promising prizes, worth VND 20 million each. The total prize pool was VND 780 million
Translated by Duc Bien - Hai Son