Nebius has launched the Nebius Robotics & Physical AI Awards, a competition for startups located in the United States, Europe, United Kingdom, and Asia. The award is $150,000 in compute credits for Nebius’ AI Cloud, accelerated by NVIDIA AI infrastructure.
Nebius is the latest technology company turning heads with its approaches to building AI infrastructure. Their focus on purpose-built systems weaves vast amounts of compute, optimized software and hardware, and collaborative ecosystems all in one. They’re at the forefront of global AI innovation—just ask Microsoft, who adopted Nebius as their newest neocloud partner in a multi-year agreement worth nearly $20 billion.
Nebius may partner with the big dogs, but working with founders and startups remains core to their mission. The company is launching this awards program now because they see physical and AI robotics as the next frontier of AI development. And they know startups in the industry need strong backing to be the industry’s pioneers.
A winner and 2 runner-ups will be selected for each of the following award categories (applicants can apply to more than one category):
- Foundation models, robot brains, and runtime
- Data engines, synthetic data, and simulation
- Industrial robotics deployment and transformation
- Vision AI and streaming video analytics
- Platforms for benchmarking, visualization, and evaluation
Successful applicants will be able to demonstrate depth of innovation, breadth of implementation, market potential, and potential or realized impact of their technology. Applications will be evaluated by a panel of judges including leaders from NVIDIA, Nebius, and other global technology companies and academic institutions.
So what makes Nebius well-positioned to be hosting this program? They support startups all around the world with best-in-class AI infrastructure. Working with startups is their bread and butter—they know the unique challenges emerging companies face. They can speak the founder’s language in a way only time-honored experience can provide. The goal of this awards program is simple: to ensure startups are building with the best technology and to give them a leading edge against their peers.
In addition to the $150,000 award, winning startups will enjoy recognition at the Nebius Robotics and Physical AI Summit & Awards Ceremony at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California on December 9th, 2025. Winners will gain media exposure, one-to-one mentorship with a Nebius C-level expert, and introductions to Nebius’ network of investors.
Apply before the deadline of October 30th, 2025. Don’t miss your chance to be celebrated as a startup using AI to shape the future of the industry.
