Overview of the 2026 Physical AI Awards
Once your AI-infused hardware is deployed in real-world settings, computational challenges multiply: data streams arrive faster than teams can label, every retraining cycle demands strict validation before shipping, and sim-to-real transitions become formal release workflows. Nebius crafted the 2026 Physical AI Awards for startups that have launched a tangible product, demonstrate traction, and have a clear scaling strategy.
Application Details
Hosts: Nebius (NASDAQ: NBIS) in partnership with NVIDIA.
Application Window: Closes October 25, 2026.
Awards Announcement: Finalists and winners revealed by mid-November 2026.
Prize Pool: Five category awards, each worth $150,000 in compute credits.
Rewards for Winners
Each category winner receives:
- $150,000 in Nebius compute credits to fund the next training cycles.
- Co-branded promotion by Nebius and NVIDIA across official channels.
- Executive mentorship with Nebius C-level leaders on scaling strategies.
- Feature coverage in a Winners Circle showcase published by Nebius.
- Two invitations to an exclusive Physical AI executive dinner in 2027.
There is no entry fee and no sponsored categories.
How the Compute Credit Converts
Nebius’ published GPU-hour rates translate the $150,000 prize into concrete compute hours:
| GPU (HGX node) | On-demand $/GPU-hr | GPU-hours | 8-GPU node-days |
|---|---|---|---|
| H100 | $3.85 | ~38,960 | ~203 |
| H200 | $4.50 | ~33,330 | ~174 |
| B200 | $7.15 | ~20,980 | ~109 |
| B300 | $7.85 | ~19,100 | ~99 |
On a 64-GPU cluster using H200s at on-demand rates, $150K equates to approximately 521 continuous hours (about three weeks). Opting for preemptible H200 instances at $2.45/GPU-hr extends that to roughly 61,200 GPU-hours—ideal for checkpointable RL and data generation jobs. vCPU and RAM are included in these rates.
Competition Categories
- Physical AI Models: VLAs, VLMs, world models, reinforcement learning.
- Perception & Spatial Intelligence: computer vision, SLAM, sensor fusion, scene understanding.
- Simulation & Synthetic Data: physics simulation, digital twins, sim-to-real transfer, synthetic data.
- Systems & Deployment: humanoids, industrial robots, AMRs, warehouse automation.
- Software, Tooling & Orchestration: middleware, MLOps, benchmarking, fleet management, deployment tooling.
Eligibility Criteria
To qualify, applicants must present a clear Physical AI use case, have an MVP in active use or testing, operate as a registered legal entity, and maintain a live public website. Each submission should focus on a single product in one category.
Judging Process & Panel
After an internal review for completeness and quality, entries are scored by a Nebius–NVIDIA panel based on:
- Depth of innovation
- Breadth of implementation
- Market potential
- Real-world impact
Finalists advance to a jury vote. The 2026 judging committee includes:
- Evan Helda, Head of Physical AI, Nebius
- Anu Maheshwari, Head of Venture Ecosystem, Nebius
- Sumay Parikh, Robotics & Physical AI Startup Lead, NVIDIA
- Amber Yang, Partner, Lightspeed
- Adrian Macneil, CEO, Foxglove
- Brian Moore, Co-founder & CEO, Voxel51
- Ulrik Stig Hansen, Co-Founder & Co-CEO, Encord
- Harry Mellsop, Co-founder, Antioch
- Calvin Zhou, Co-founder & VP of Engineering, RoboForce
Nebius may announce additional judges before the October 25 deadline.
2025 Program Outcomes
The inaugural 2025 edition received 254 applications, produced 55 finalists, and awarded $1.5 million in compute credits. Notable post-award achievements include:
- RoboForce (Industrial Robotics winner): Raised $52 million in March 2026 and secured over 11,000 robot orders via letters of intent.
- Gather AI (Vision AI & Analytics winner): Closed a $40 million Series B round in February 2026.
- Virgo (Foundation Models runner-up): Went on to win at the 2026 Nebius AI Discovery Awards.
While Nebius does not attribute these milestones directly to the awards, they highlight the level of innovation the program attracts.
Key Dates & Takeaways
- Apply by October 25, 2026; finalists and winners revealed mid-November.
- Five $150K compute credit awards—one per category.
- Judged by a nine-person Nebius & NVIDIA panel with joint promotion for winners.
- Winners receive exclusive dinner invitations in 2027.
For full details and to submit your application, visit the 2026 Physical AI Awards page and review the Nebius AI Cloud pricing. Explore the 2025 results and the 2025 winners press release.
Article supported by the Nebius AI team.