# Nebius and NVIDIA launch 2026 Physical AI Awards with $150K compute prizes

Digest AI · Robotics & Physical AI · published 2026-09-29T16:17:34Z · updated 2026-09-29T17:48:10Z

Canonical: https://digestai.news/story/nebius-and-nvidia-launch-2026-physical-ai-awards-with-150k-compute-pri

## Summary

Nebius and NVIDIA announced the **2026 Physical AI Awards**, a global competition offering five $150,000 compute credit prizes across five categories. Applications are open until **October 25, 2026**, with winners announced in mid-November. The prizes include Nebius compute credits, joint promotion from both companies, executive mentorship, and an exclusive dinner with industry leaders.

The competition targets startups with a **demonstrable Physical AI product**, including models, perception systems, simulations, deployment tools, and robotics. Judges—selected by Nebius and NVIDIA—will evaluate entries on innovation, implementation, market potential, and real-world impact. The panel includes industry operators like **Foxglove’s Adrian Macneil**, **Voxel51’s Brian Moore**, and **RoboForce’s Calvin Zhou**, who previously won the 2025 edition. The **2025 cohort** saw 254 applicants, with winners like **RoboForce** (Industrial Robotics) raising **$52M** and **Gather AI** (Vision AI) securing **$40M** in follow-on funding.

Nebius emphasizes the awards aim to support teams scaling **fleet data, retraining pipelines, and sim-to-real deployment**—critical challenges for Physical AI startups. The **$150K credits** convert to **521 hours on a 64-GPU H200 cluster** or **61,200 GPU-hours** at preemptible rates, depending on use case.

## Key points

- Five $150K compute credit prizes awarded across Physical AI categories, applications close October 25, 2026
- Winners get Nebius/NVIDIA promotion, mentorship, and an executive dinner with industry leaders
- Judges include operators from Foxglove, Voxel51, and RoboForce, who evaluate innovation and real-world impact

## Why it matters

The awards provide critical compute resources and visibility for Physical AI startups navigating scaling challenges, accelerating deployment of models in real-world environments.

## Sources

1. [Nebius Opens 2026 Physical AI Awards: Five $150K Compute Prizes, Nine Judges, and an October 25 Deadline](https://marktechpost.com/2026/09/29/nebius-opens-2026-physical-ai-awards-five-150k-compute-prizes-nine-judges-and-an-october-25-deadline) (MarkTechPost, 2026-09-29)
2. [Nebius Opens 2026 Physical AI Awards: Five $150K Compute Credit Prizes](https://marktechpost.com/2026/09/29/nebius-opens-2026-physical-ai-awards-five-150k-compute-prizes) (MarkTechPost, 2026-09-29)

## Cite

Digest AI, "Nebius and NVIDIA launch 2026 Physical AI Awards with $150K compute prizes", 29 September 2026, https://digestai.news/story/nebius-and-nvidia-launch-2026-physical-ai-awards-with-150k-compute-pri

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