Stavian and Midas Capital sign $1 billion Vietnam-Japan digital infrastructure deal

Vietnam's Stavian Group and Japan's Midas Capital have signed a $1 billion memorandum of understanding to jointly develop submarine cable and AI infrastructure in Vietnam. Stavian announced the deal in a statement on Monday. The signing took place in Tokyo, on the sidelines of General Secretary-State President To Lam's visit to Japan.

The agreement isn't a vague promise of cooperation — it names specific asset classes and a concrete flagship project. That matters for anyone tracking Vietnam's digital infrastructure buildout, because subsea capacity has been a recurring bottleneck for the country's data center and cloud ambitions.

What does the $1 billion cover?

According to Stavian's statement, the MOU spans four areas:

• New submarine cable routes linking Vietnam with international markets, including Japan
• Digital and AI infrastructure such as data centers, digital parks and computing facilities
• Financial resources and international partners
• Technology transfer, international operating standards, and workforce training

The split of responsibilities is clear. Stavian Group will lead project development and handle investment procedures inside Vietnam. Midas Capital will mobilize financial resources, technology partners, and institutions inside and outside Japan. The two companies will assess and execute specific projects through due diligence, followed by implementation agreements — standard language, but it signals that binding deals will follow if the diligence holds up.

The MViSTA cable: 2,500 km, 16 fiber pairs, 400 Tbps

The flagship asset already on the table is MViSTA, an open-access submarine cable system connecting Vietnam with Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. The system runs 2,500 kilometers and carries 16 fiber pairs with a design capacity of 400 terabits per second.

To put that in perspective, 400 Tbps is enough transmission capacity to move tens of millions of high-definition video streams simultaneously — and for the region's operators, the point isn't video but backbone capacity. Stavian says MViSTA can increase international transmission capacity, add data routes, and support data centers, cloud computing and AI applications across Southeast Asia.

Four strategic investors back the project: Stavian Group of Vietnam, Midas Capital of Japan, OMS Group of Malaysia, and LitUp of Singapore. That mix gives the cable landing-party coverage in three of its four connected markets.

What the principals are saying

Dinh Duc Thang, chairman of Stavian Group, framed the deal in national-strategy terms. Digital infrastructure, he said, is central to AI, the digital economy and national competitiveness. He added that the company wants to build submarine cable, data center and AI projects that can connect and scale to international standards.

Yoshimura Hideki, representative partner at Midas Capital, kept his framing on the capital side. The cooperation, he said, links Vietnam's growth with Japanese capital, technology and business development.

What this changes for Vietnam's infrastructure market

For infrastructure investors and telecom operators, the deal signals two shifts. First, Vietnam's subsea connectivity is attracting billion-dollar cross-border capital, with Japan as a named anchor partner — a positioning that aligns with the diplomatic timing of To Lam's Tokyo visit. Second, the pairing of cable routes with data centers, digital parks and computing facilities points to vertically integrated digital infrastructure plays rather than standalone cable investments.

The timing also fits a pattern. The Stavian-Midas signing came alongside other Vietnam-Japan tech tie-ups announced during the same visit, including a collaboration between Vietnam's FPT and Japan's SBI Holdings on a memory chip packaging plant.

Next comes the due diligence and the implementation agreements. If those convert the MOU into financed projects, MViSTA's 400 Tbps would give Vietnam a materially larger share of Southeast Asia's international data capacity — and the region's AI builders another reason to route traffic through it.