Qualcomm has acquired the generative AI unit, Movian AI of a Vietnamese AI research company called VinAI. The companies have not disclosed the value of the deal. 

VinAI was notably founded and is led by former DeepMind research scientist Hung Bui who has authored several research papers on GenAI. 

“This acquisition underscores our commitment to dedicating the necessary resources to R&D that makes us the driving force behind the next wave of AI innovation,” said Jilei Hou, senior vice president of engineering, Qualcomm Technologies, in a press release on the announcement. “By bringing in high-caliber talent from VinAI, we are strengthening our ability to deliver cutting-edge AI solutions that will benefit a wide range of industries and consumers,” he noted. 

VinAI Application and Research JSC is a machine learning lab that is under the parent company Vingroup, that has businesses across sectors including cars and hotels.

Dr. Hung Bui, founder and chief executive officer, VinAI, said, “We are ready to contribute to Qualcomm’s mission of making breakthroughs in fundamental AI research and scale them across industries, including smartphones, PCs, software-defined vehicles, and more.”

Founded in 2019, the Hanoi-headquartered GenAI lab has made AI-powered products for automobiles like in-cabin monitoring and security solutions, while continuing to contribute to AI research. 

A couple of years ago, VinAI demoed a new technique to build image generation models by using an existing image generation model to train a smaller one using less hardware.

Just last month, Qualcomm acquired Edge Impulse, a Germany-based AI company that builds IoT devices.