Nebius launches global awards for robotics & physical AI startups

Nebius has announced the launch of the Nebius Robotics and Physical AI Awards, a new global initiative aimed at recognising and accelerating startups and scale-ups developing advancements in embodied robotics, autonomous systems, and vision AI.

The awards programme is targeted explicitly at companies across Asia, Europe, the United States, and other regions, encouraging broad participation from organisations working at the intersection of robotics and artificial intelligence. The initiative aims to support both early-stage startups and more mature scale-ups working on technologies that are influencing the way physical environments are monitored, understood, and automated.

According to Nebius, applicants will be eligible for prizes comprising up to USD $100,000 in Nebius AI Cloud compute credits, powered by NVIDIA's AI infrastructure. The awards also offer recipients an opportunity for heightened global visibility and the chance to connect with technology leaders and investors, particularly in Silicon Valley.

The focus areas for the awards cover categories deemed especially pertinent to the industrial and urban development taking place across Asia. These include Industrial Robotics Deployment-such as solutions for logistics, manufacturing, energy, and healthcare-as well as Vision AI, encompassing smart cities, safety compliance, and industrial monitoring. The award framework is structured to encourage the development and scaling of technology that has both strong commercial promise and impact on industrial transformation.

Winners will be announced at the Nebius Robotics and Physical AI Summit & Awards Ceremony scheduled to take place at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, on 9 December 2025. The summit is expected to include panel discussions, networking opportunities, and showcases aimed at investors, corporate leaders, and researchers.

Mona Li, Director of Startup Ecosystem at Nebius, described the rationale behind the awards.

"Physical AI is the next frontier where robotics and intelligence truly converge," she said. "Together with NVIDIA, we are excited to celebrate the pioneers turning this vision into reality."

Startups and scale-ups will be recognised in five main categories:

The first is Foundation Models, Robot Brains, and Runtime, which refers to large-scale multimodal AI models, vision-language-action frameworks, and runtimes powering the next generation of autonomous systems. Second, Data Engines, Synthetic Data, and Simulation will consider entries focused on data platforms, synthetic data tools, simulation environments, and the development of digital twins used for scalable AI training and validation. The Industrial Robotics Deployment and Transformation category centres on large-scale robot deployments across logistics, manufacturing, energy, healthcare, and construction, where measurable return on investment and safety outcomes are highlighted as key criteria.

The Vision AI and Streaming Video Analytics category focuses on AI systems for applications such as smart cities, industrial monitoring, and compliance uses. Finally, Platforms for Benchmarking, Visualisation, and Evaluation will recognise tools and frameworks that enable testing, compliance, and the development of shared standards across robotics and physical AI projects.

The judging panel will be composed of experts from Nebius, NVIDIA, and several other global technology companies as well as academic institutions. According to Nebius, submissions will be evaluated based on five criteria: technical innovation, real-world implementation, market potential, product-market fit, and contribution to responsible and ethical technology use.

As part of the initiative, Nebius is encouraging strong participation from Asian companies, highlighting the specific relevance of the awards' industrial and urban focus areas to the region's continued economic growth and transformation.

The Nebius Robotics and Physical AI Awards will run in parallel with the Nebius Robotics and Physical AI Summit, designed to facilitate discussion and collaboration amongst investors, researchers, and corporate innovators working in the physical AI and robotics sectors.

Entries are currently open to startups and scale-ups from across Asia, Europe, the United States, the United Kingdom, and globally, with details available for interested organisations to apply for the awards opportunity.