- Nebius launched the global Robotics and Physical AI Awards to spotlight startups/scale-ups in embodied robotics, autonomous systems, and streaming video analytics, with winners announced Dec. 9, 2025 at the Computer History Museum and prizes up to $100,000 in Nebius AI Cloud compute (on NVIDIA infrastructure) plus visibility and access.
- Five categories: Foundation Models/Robot Brains & Runtime; Data Engines/Synthetic Data & Simulation; Industrial Robotics Deployment; Vision AI & Streaming Video Analytics; Benchmarking/Visualization/Evaluation Platforms.
- Entries will be judged by leaders from Nebius, NVIDIA, and other tech/academic institutions on innovation, real-world implementation, market potential, product-market fit, and responsible impact, alongside a co-located summit of panels, networking, and showcases.
PRESS RELEASE –Nebius is proud to announce the Nebius Robotics and Physical AI Awards, a new global initiative to find the next big thing among startups and scale-ups building the future of robotics and vision AI systems.
The awards aim to showcase companies advancing the frontier of physical AI, from embodied robotics and autonomous systems to streaming video analytics — technologies that are redefining how the physical world is observed, understood, and automated.
The winners will be announced at the Nebius Robotics and Physical AI Summit & Awards Ceremony at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA, on December 9, 2025. Prizes include up to $100,000 in compute credits for Nebius AI Cloud, accelerated by NVIDIA AI infrastructure, along with global visibility and access to leaders across technology and research.
“Physical AI is the next frontier where robotics and intelligence truly converge,” said Mona Li, Director of Startup Ecosystem at Nebius. “Together with NVIDIA, we are excited to celebrate the pioneers turning this vision into reality.”
Startups will be recognized across five categories:
- Foundation Models, Robot Brains and Runtime — large-scale multimodal AI models, vision-language-action models, and runtime infrastructure powering next-generation autonomous systems;
- Data Engines, Synthetic Data and Simulation — data platforms, synthetic data tools, simulation environments, and digital twins enabling scalable training and validation;
- Industrial Robotics Deployment and Transformation — large-scale deployments of robots across logistics, manufacturing, energy, healthcare, and construction with measurable ROI and safety outcomes;
- Vision AI and Streaming Video Analytics — AI systems for video analytics in smart cities, industrial monitoring, safety, and compliance;
- Platforms for Benchmarking, Visualization, and Evaluation — tools and frameworks that provide testing, compliance, and shared standards for robotics and physical AI.
Entries will be evaluated by a distinguished jury including leaders from Nebius, NVIDIA, and other top global technology companies and academic institutions. Projects will be assessed on technical innovation, real-world implementation, market potential, product-market fit, and responsible impact.
The Nebius Robotics and Physical AI Awards will be complemented by the Nebius Robotics and Physical AI Summit, featuring panel discussions, networking opportunities, and startup showcases with leading investors, corporate innovators, and researchers.
Companies from the United States, Europe and UK, Asia, and worldwide are invited to apply at https://nebius.com/robotics-physical-ai-awards.
