Vietnam’s next manufacturing bet has arms, legs, and a growing dose of AI.
AMC Robotics this week reaffirmed plans to begin producing its NovaArm robotic arm in Vietnam in the second half of 2026. The company first announced its 6,150-square-meter manufacturing facility in Bắc Ninh in June, but its Aug. 17 quarterly results confirmed that the production timeline remains on track as Vietnamese companies develop their own humanoid robots and form international partnerships around embodied AI.
Taken together, the developments suggest Vietnam may be trying to extend its established role as an electronics manufacturing hub into the rapidly expanding robotics economy, both as a production base and as a source of homegrown technology.
AMC keeps Vietnam robot production on track
AMC Robotics is keeping its Vietnam production plans on track for the second half of 2026.
In its second-quarter financial results, the company said its Vietnamese subsidiary, AMCV Company Limited, plans to use the Bắc Ninh facility for the first phase of NovaArm production. The lease is expected to take effect in the third quarter, and AMC expects to spend approximately $3.5 million on the facility’s buildout and equipment.
AMC first announced the Vietnam facility in June, when it disclosed plans to establish the site as its long-term manufacturing base in Southeast Asia.
AMC describes NovaArm as a robotic arm designed for high-load, high-precision warehouse sorting and industrial automation. The company has also said the Vietnamese manufacturing operation could eventually support other products, including its Kyro quadruped robotic dog.
The location matters almost as much as the machines.
Vietnam has spent years establishing itself as an important electronics and technology manufacturing center. Robotics could give the country an opportunity to expand that role into a sector that increasingly combines advanced hardware with computer vision, AI models, sensors, and autonomous decision-making.
And while AMC prepares to manufacture robots in Vietnam, local companies are trying to develop the brains and bodies themselves.
Vietnam’s homegrown humanoids enter the picture
Earlier this summer, two Vingroup-backed companies brought separate Vietnamese humanoid robots onto the international stage.
VinDynamics debuted Dyno at ICRA 2026 in Vienna and Computex Taipei in June. According to Vingroup’s announcement, the humanoid was developed by Vietnamese engineers as a multipurpose assistant for use in environments such as campuses, urban areas, and service complexes.
Dyno has also been tested outside the exhibition hall. VinDynamics said the robot was piloted as a guide at Vinpearl Safari Phu Quoc, where it communicated with visitors, provided multilingual narration, and answered questions.
VinRobotics, another Vingroup robotics company, meanwhile showcased its VR-H3 humanoid platform at international events beginning in late May. The company presented the machine as a “Make in Vietnam” humanoid platform built around technologies developed by Vietnamese engineers, according to Vingroup.
Those robots are entering an industry where flashy demonstrations are increasingly giving way to a harder question: Can humanoids perform useful work reliably enough to justify putting them into factories and businesses?
That pressure is showing up across the industry. A recent Figure demonstration showed its Figure 03 humanoid robot autonomously climbing a ladder, highlighting the push to make robots navigate environments built for human workers.
Figure CEO Brett Adcock said the climb was fully autonomous and powered by the company’s Helix AI system. However, Figure has not publicly disclosed detailed success rates for the task, making the demonstration a useful sign of progress rather than definitive proof of commercial readiness.
Vietnam’s emerging players will eventually face the same test.
China sets a daunting benchmark
Vietnam may be building momentum, but its robotics industry is emerging next to a giant.
Chinese vendors accounted for more than 97% of global shipments of humanoid robots during the first half of 2026, according to Smart Analytics Global data previously covered by eWeek. AgiBot reportedly shipped about 8,400 units during the period, followed by Unitree with approximately 5,900.
That scale makes the contrast striking. While Vietnamese companies are putting early humanoid platforms in front of international audiences, Chinese manufacturers are already trying to turn robotics into a volume business.
As eWeek reported in its look at China’s humanoid robot market, the country’s lead extends beyond individual robots. China has a dense manufacturing ecosystem spanning motors, batteries, sensors, electronics, actuators, and other components developers need to move from prototype to production.
The competition is also becoming increasingly public.
The World Humanoid Robot Games are scheduled for Aug. 22 to Aug. 26 in Beijing, with 2,056 robots from 666 teams across 16 countries expected to participate. As eWeek examined ahead of the event, the competition will include athletic contests alongside scenarios representing factories, hotels, retail environments, and other real-world settings.
From assembling electronics to building intelligent machines
The larger opportunity for Vietnam may lie in combining something it already does well with something considerably newer.
Manufacturing robots for foreign companies such as AMC could deepen the country’s role in the production of advanced technology. Developing platforms such as Dyno and VR-H3 could create a pathway for Vietnamese companies to own more of the software, AI, intellectual property, and engineering behind those machines.
Vingroup’s robotics companies are already looking abroad for pieces of that puzzle.
VinDynamics signed an agreement with Skild AI in June to explore embodied AI, robot manipulation, edge AI, and the potential integration of Skild’s robotics foundation model into VinDynamics machines, according to the companies’ partnership announcement.
VinRobotics separately announced a partnership with Infineon Technologies around semiconductor technology for next-generation robotics. The agreement includes plans for a joint competency center focused on technical development and co-innovation.
None of those moves guarantees Vietnam will become a major robotics power.
Humanoid robots in particular remain an immature market. Impressive prototypes still have to survive the less glamorous realities of reliability, cost, maintenance, scalability, and commercial demand. But viewed together, the developments suggest something more substantial than a collection of isolated robot demonstrations.
A foreign robotics company is preparing a Vietnamese factory for production. Vietnamese engineers are putting homegrown humanoids on international stages. Local robotics companies are connecting with global AI and semiconductor partners.
Related reading: For another look at Asia’s expanding robotics push, see how China’s robocops are scaling up after issuing more than 170,000 traffic warnings.