Return to pay tribute to the place where I was born and raised

Dr. Loi Nguyen, Vice President of Marvell Group: Returning to show gratitude to the place where he was born and raised

The dream of returning to his homeland to support the training of microchip design engineers of Dr. Loi Nguyen, Senior Vice President of Marvell Group, became a reality when Marvell established the Microchip Design Center in Ho Chi Minh City.

Dr. Loi Nguyen introduces the Microchip Design Center in Ho Chi Minh City in May 2023

Dr. Loi Nguyen is a Vietnamese-American, born and raised in Ho Chi Minh City, studied for 2 years at the University of Natural Sciences in Ho Chi Minh City before moving to the United States to study and live. In the land of the stars and stripes, he worked at the Honeywell Physical Sciences Center from 1984 to 1988.

He then received his PhD in electrical engineering from Cornell University in 1989 and his MBA from UCLA in 1997. He wrote his graduate thesis on the development of GaAs devices for direct-broadcast satellites, automotive radios, and defense equipment.

With a deep understanding of the electronics industry, in 2000, Dr. Loi Nguyen and two friends decided to start a business by establishing Inphi Company to provide optical semiconductor solutions, DSP, and high-speed telecommunications services. At that time, each person only had 2,000 USD to contribute capital to establish Inphi and the Company only had enough money to take care of procedures and rent a working location.

After that, Inphi raised an additional 12 million USD in investment capital, Mr. Loi and his colleagues started researching solutions including chip design to increase Internet speed. At that time, the market really needed this, if it could be done, it would have high revenue. However, things were not easy, because a series of companies rushed into research, so Inphi's products could not compete.

In the first 3 years, Inphi had no customers and no revenue. “When I first started, I thought that after 3-4 years, I would make a profit. But the reality did not go as I expected and I realized that opening a company is easy, but developing it successfully is a difficult journey,” Mr. Loi shared.

Despite the failure, Mr. Loi Nguyen was not discouraged and determined to find a new direction. After many sleepless nights, he and his colleagues decided to switch to researching high-speed data connection products and solutions to provide for cloud data centers, wired and wireless transmission networks.

These products were well received by many businesses, and the number of orders skyrocketed. After 3 years, from having no revenue, by 2007, Inphi had reached 31 million USD in revenue for the first time. However, after deducting all expenses, the company only broke even.

After a difficult start, Inphi's revenue increased steadily in the following years and reached 83 million USD in 2010. With its continuous growth, Inphi was awarded the award for the most outstanding private company in Silicon Valley, so it is known by many businesses.

Dr. Loi Nguyen visited Nguyen Du High School - where he studied - during a visit to Vietnam.

2010 was a memorable milestone for Inphi, when the company went public at $12/share and after just one year, it increased to $20/share. However, in 2012, the market went down, Inphi's stock price dropped to only $8/share. At that time, the two co-founders decided to sell all their shares. "I was really discouraged, but I believed I would succeed," Mr. Loi recalled.

To revive Inphi, Mr. Loi sought new leadership to accompany him. With his efforts and perseverance, Inphi's revenue increased again and reached 340 million USD in 2017, continuing to increase to 680 million USD in 2020. Thanks to the increased revenue, Inphi's stock price increased to 175 USD/share on April 20, 2021.

The turning point came in April 2021, when Dr. Loi Nguyen decided to sell Inphi to Marvell (the world's leading semiconductor design corporation) for more than 10 billion USD. This deal at that time caused a "shock" in the semiconductor industry.

He said that with the technology that Inphi owns when merging with Marvell, this will be the perfect piece for Marvell to expand its data center and 5G business. Selling the company that he has worked hard to build to Marvell is also a good opportunity for Inphi to have a stronger foundation to compete with other large corporations.

“If Inphi is not sold to Marvell, the company's revenue will reach $1 billion in 2021. With such revenue, the price of $10 billion is not high,” Mr. Loi said about his decision.

Dr. Loi Nguyen did not enjoy the proceeds from the sale of Inphi alone, but shared them with the engineers and employees who had been with him since the early days and even during the company's difficult times. After Inphi merged with Marvell, he also joined Marvell and held the position of Senior Vice President of the Group in charge of the optical and copper sectors. He believes that with his experience, he will help Marvell become more successful.

With his good Vietnamese, Dr. Loi Nguyen was assigned by Marvell to be in charge of the Group's business activities in Vietnam. Thanks to this, he has more opportunities to return to Vietnam. This is also an opportunity for him to show his gratitude to his homeland.

In May 2023, Marvell officially established the IC Design Center in Ho Chi Minh City. This will be one of Marvell's four leading IC design centers in Asia. Mr. Loi Nguyen is assigned to directly monitor this center.

Talking about the decision to establish the Microchip Design Center in Ho Chi Minh City, Mr. Loi Nguyen said that 10 years ago, Marvell mainly focused on storage products. When acquiring Inphi, the Group expanded into optical connectivity. Moreover, design engineers in Vietnam are very creative, there are projects and chips designed right at Marvell Vietnam, and the project leader is Vietnamese.

Therefore, what Dr. Loi Nguyen wishes to do when returning to his homeland is to help universities in Vietnam train more engineers in the field of microchip design. During his return trip in mid-January 2024, he met with leaders of universities in Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang, and Hanoi and helped the schools train more microchip design engineers.

When American semiconductor companies come to Vietnam, especially after the two countries upgraded their relationship to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, the human resources for IC design will become very hot. The important thing is that Vietnam must train enough human resources to meet the needs of its partners. This is also what Dr. Loi Nguyen is concerned about and the desire to train more IC design engineers not only to serve Marvell, but also to serve multinational IC companies has never diminished in him...

"I still miss the taste of Vietnamese Tet"

What flavor of Vietnamese Tet do you remember most?

I still miss the traditional taste of Tet in Vietnam. In America, during Tet, my family still has banh chung, gio, cha, and chicken for dinner, but we only celebrate Tet for one day, not for a long time like in Vietnam.

What do you expect from Ho Chi Minh City in 2024?

I hope that in a few years, Ho Chi Minh City will have more subways to eliminate traffic jams and save travel time. In 2024, I hope that universities in Ho Chi Minh City will train more microchip design engineers.

Will Marvell support training schools for this industry to supply Marvell and other multinational companies, sir?

Marvell has decided to increase the number of scholarships from 10 to 30 this year for talented students. It is hoped that Vietnam will attract investors to open factories to produce Marvell-designed chips.

Source