Sao Khue 2026 Awards Ceremony. (Photo: Hong Chau)

Entering its 23rd year, Sao Khue 2026 marks a significant transformation as it is redesigned for the first time into the "New Generation Sao Khue" model – not just an honoring activity but also a system for evaluating, verifying, and positioning the digital technology capabilities of Vietnamese enterprises.

The event took place as the Digital Technology Industry Law officially came into effect at the beginning of 2026, serving as a "drumbeat" urging the digital business community to bravely abandon short-term commercial thinking and venture into new development spaces with national digital sovereignty.

Unlike previous seasons, Sao Khue 2026 is not just an award ceremony but has become a platform for evaluating, verifying, and connecting the Vietnamese digital technology ecosystem. Enterprises can self-position their solutions, have them assessed and verified by experts, and be listed on the Vietnam Digital Technology Solutions Map. This system helps businesses enhance brand credibility, improve market access, expand investment connections, and foster cooperation opportunities both domestically and internationally.

For management agencies, the Vietnam Digital Technology Solutions Map is an important reference tool for policy planning and promoting national digital transformation. For organizations and users, it is a transparent data source for selecting reputable technology solutions that meet practical needs.

Additionally, the program contributes to building a database of Vietnam's digital technology capabilities by industry and field, reflecting the development trends of the technology market in the new phase.

140 solutions have been evaluated, verified, and included in 28 maps in this inaugural campaign.

Honouring technology solutions driving digital economy development

Through the rounds of Evaluation, Presentation, and Final Selection, the Sao Khue 2026 Awards Council, chaired by Dr. Nguyen Quan – Former Minister of Science and Technology, along with 21 jury members, selected 123 outstanding digital platforms, services, and solutions to receive the Sao Khue 2026 Award. Among them, the most notable are 42 Digital Economy & Digital Transaction solutions; 25 Digital Governance solutions; and 18 Breakthrough Technology solutions.

The 42 solutions in the Digital Economy and Digital Transaction Group and 25 governance solutions honored reflect the strong acceleration of digital transformation in the finance – banking, payment, and digital commerce sectors. Digital technology enterprises have demonstrated their ability to fully master their application, digital transaction, and digital infrastructure layers.

The Breakthrough Technology Group highlights the prominence of artificial intelligence (AI) as most nominations focus on AI and smart automation. Solutions like FPT Camera Brain, Saydi, Kyta Platform, and VNPT Cloud clearly reflect the trend of "AI in action" – AI has moved beyond exploration and experimentation to become independent products and solutions. AI is no longer just for chatting or support but directly participates in automating processes, optimizing infrastructure, analyzing data, and operating businesses in real-time.

Speaking at the event, Nguyen Khac Lich – Director of the Department of Information Technology Industry, Ministry of Science and Technology, stated: “The products honored today are not only the result of innovation but also evidence of the maturity of Vietnamese digital technology enterprises – those who are gradually mastering technology, data, platforms, and asserting Vietnam's position on the global digital technology map.”

Top 10 Sao Khue 2026: Elite solutions for the digital economy

To appear in the Top 10 Sao Khue 2026, products and solutions must not only achieve excellent scores on the "Maturity" axis but also demonstrate practical deployment effectiveness, financial capability, market expansion potential, and clear return on investment (ROI) for customers.

This year, the Top 10 Sao Khue recognizes a balanced presence between major technology corporations – mastering infrastructure, data, and digital platforms – and pioneering enterprises in niche markets such as AI, FinTech, GovTech, security, and automation.

The solutions honored in this year's Top 10 Sao Khue Awards show that Vietnamese technology enterprises are entering a new development phase: from providing standalone software to creating digital operational infrastructure for the economy.

This is also the first time many Vietnamese technology products simultaneously achieve three elements: large scale, big data, and real-time operation. Many platforms serve tens of millions of users and process billions of transactions annually.

For instance, some digital banking platforms report over 15 million regular users with more than 2.7 billion transactions per year, while public administration platforms have processed nearly 1.8 million online records with a digitization rate of over 94%.

Dr. Nguyen Quan, Former Minister of Science and Technology, Chairman of the Sao Khue 2026 Jury, shared: “The process of 'sifting through sand to find gold' to select the Top 10 and 5-star standard solutions this year was conducted seriously, transparently, and more conveniently based on quantitative criteria and a multidimensional data evaluation model. The products honored all demonstrate technological capability, deployment effectiveness, and long-term development potential.”

Launch of the Vietnam Digital Technology Solutions Map 2026. (Photo: Hong Chau)

Paving the way for new "Development spaces"

While proud of achievements in commercial applications and digital transactions, the Sao Khue organizers candidly pointed out the "strategic upstream gaps". At the awards ceremony, VINASA called on the technology community to allocate profits from commercial peaks to invest in R&D, paving the way into four critical new development spaces:

Industrial/Vertical AI: McKinsey forecasts that AI will contribute $13 trillion to the global economy by 2030, but actual funds will flow into the vertical AI market serving manufacturing and logistics industries, with a scale of $300 billion.

Vietnamese enterprises need to invest in and conduct R&D on specialized AI models to transform core economic sectors, elevating the status of domestic goods in the global supply chain instead of merely using AI for simple recognition or sales management.

Low-altitude Economy: Morgan Stanley asserts that the low-altitude economy and autonomous flying vehicles (eVTOL, industrial drones) will explode into a $1.5 trillion industry by 2040.

The unmanned traffic management (UTM) and low-altitude logistics navigation segments alone will reach $100 billion by 2030. VINASA calls on digital enterprises to master air traffic operating systems, independently design industrial UAV ecosystems "Make in Vietnam" to dominate this new economic airspace.

Robotics and DeepTech Industrial Automation: The International Federation of Robotics (IFR) announced that the AI-driven Robotics market will exceed $50 billion by 2030, reshaping the structure of every Smart Factory globally thanks to the thorough convergence of information technology and operational technology (IT/OT).

Sao Khue aims to honor solutions and technologies that intervene in the core mechatronics and heavy-duty robot control software to independently manage the national production chain.

Quantum Technology: The global quantum computing market is growing at a CAGR of over 40%, expected to surpass $100 billion by 2030. When quantum computers reach maturity, they can break all traditional financial encryption algorithms in seconds.

VINASA recommends that cybersecurity enterprises immediately dive into research and application of Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC), building a new generation security shield to protect national digital sovereignty against the quantum computing wave.

Speaking at the ceremony, Truong Gia Binh – Chairman of VINASA's Founding Council – issued a "call to arms" to Vietnamese digital technology enterprises: "The Digital Technology Industry Law, effective from early 2026, can be seen as the 'ultimate declaration' protecting the creative space of Vietnamese enterprises.

In this context, this year's Sao Khue not only acknowledges the peaks achieved but also serves as a drumbeat urging us toward new skies. Do not be content with revenue reports from surface-level applications.

Be brave and invest massive capital into R&D, paving the way into upstream core technologies such as Low-altitude Economy, Robotics, and Industrial AI. This is not just a business equation; it is a self-strengthening mandate to protect national digital sovereignty."