2026 Global Open-source AI Challenge Grand Finals and Awards Ceremony Held in Hangzhou

Hangzhou, China, Sept. 27, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- From September 22 to 23, the Global Open-source AI Challenge Grand Finals and Awards Ceremony was held at the Cloud Valley Center in Hangzhou.

The Competition is hosted by the Hangzhou Open Source Artificial Intelligence Foundation, with the Agentic AI Foundation (AAIF) and LF AI & Data Foundation serving as global open-source partners. Joint organizers include Zhejiang Lab, Alibaba Cloud Intelligence Group, Ant Group, Hangzhou AILume Future Technology Co., Ltd., Deep Robotics, Manycore Tech Inc., and InfoQ Geek Media.With "Open. Share. Build." as its core slogan, this year’s competition gathered global developers, research institutions, open-source communities, and industry forces through open source, driving AI innovation projects to be discovered through collaboration, validated in practice, and further advanced toward real-world applications.

At the awards ceremony on September 23, experts and developer representatives from domestic and international universities and research institutions, international open-source organizations, tech companies, investment institutions, and open-source communities gathered to witness the announcement of the competition’s major awards.

Since its launch in July this year, Global Open-source AI Challenge has broadly solicited AI innovation projects from global developers, open-source contributors, university research teams, enterprise AI teams, research institutions, startup teams, and AI Builders. The competition attracted over 14,000 developers from 91 countries and regions worldwide, receiving 2,999 valid preliminary-round submissions. After successive rounds of preliminary and semi-final selection, 70 projects ultimately advanced to the Finals for the final showdown in Hangzhou.

On September 22, champions, runners-up, and third-place winners were determined across six competition units in four tracks; on September 23, the six champion teams entered the "Champion Showtime" session, where the GOAI Grand Prize was ultimately selected.

Top 70 Teams Battle in Hangzhou, Six Competition Units Enter Final Showdown

Artificial intelligence is moving from the "digital world" to the "physical world." This year’s competition featured four tracks—"Agent Infra," "Boundless Agents," "AI for Research," and "Embodied Future"—covering cutting-edge directions in AI innovation including Agent infrastructure, industry applications, AI-empowered research, and embodied intelligence, emphasizing the philosophy of "from Demo to real-world application."

Among them, the AI for Research track includes Algorithm sub-track and Open Exploration sub-track; the Embodied Future track includes General Dual-arm Collaboration Capability Test and Industrial Park All-Terrain Patrol Challenge. Together, the four tracks form six competition units.

On September 22, the Grand Finals of the four tracks were held simultaneously at the Cloud Valley Center in Hangzhou. Multiple venues entered competition sessions at the same time, with participating teams undergoing on-site Finals evaluation through project roadshows, Demo demonstrations, technical Q&A, algorithm performance verification, and on-site task testing.

Judging experts from universities, research institutions, open-source communities, tech enterprises and industrial frontlines conduct comprehensive evaluations by taking the characteristics of different tracks and challenge problems into consideration. The assessment covers problem value and practical impact, innovation, technical or research depth, completeness and verifiability, open-source value and reusability. They also have in-depth discussions with participating teams during defense and testing sessions. For projects advancing to the Grand Final, this event serves not only as a centralized assessment of technical achievements and engineering capabilities, but also as an in-depth exchange targeting real technical challenges and industrial demands.

After the first day of competition, champions, runners-up, and third-place winners were determined across the six competition units, with the six champion teams advancing to the "Champion Showtime" held on the second day.

Six Champions Convene; GOAI Grand Prize and Major Awards Announced

On the morning of September 23, the six champion teams entered the "Champion Showtime" session. Judging experts from technology, open-source ecosystem, and industry fields conducted comprehensive evaluation around real problems, innovation, technical or research depth, completeness and verifiability, open-source value and reuse, and scenario deployment and ecosystem synergy potential.

The six teams showcased their projects’ core technologies, verification results, open-source value, and future application directions, and responded to on-site judging questions. Ultimately, ExpLoop Lab, the champion team from the AI for Research track · Open Exploration sub-track, won the GOAI Grand Prize and a 1 million RMB award with its project "MirrorPeptidizer: DeNovo Mirror Peptide Design Algorithm."

Addressing challenges in mirror peptide R&D such as high target protein preparation costs and data scarcity, MirrorPeptidizer lowers research barriers through a new computational design pathway and has validated algorithm-generated molecular starting points through wet experiments, demonstrating a complete pipeline from algorithmic innovation to research verification. The project not only solves a specific scientific problem but also forms a method with reuse value, enabling more researchers to continue verification and extension through open source. Starting from the real needs of AI for Research, it connects computation and experimentation through technological innovation and promotes research collaboration through open source, making AI a genuine new tool for scientific exploration.

The champion projects of the other five competition units are: Agent Infra—"DataFlow-Agent Intelligent Data Governance"; Boundless Agents—"ZhiChain Agent · Commercial Aerospace Mission Technical Status and Verification Evidence Agent"; AI for Research · Algorithm sub-track—"MD Transformer Based on SpatiotemporaIPE"; Embodied Future · General Dual-arm Collaboration Capability Test—"GOLION Dual-arm Collaboration Project"; Embodied Future · Industrial Park All-Terrain Patrol Challenge—"Wisdom Patrol Lynx - All-Terrain Inspection System".

GOAI DAY Gathers Global AI Open Innovation Forces

At the competition’s awards ceremony held that day, multiple domestic and international guests jointly presented awards to the winning teams.

Wang Yu, Tenured Professor of the Department of Electronic Engineering at Tsinghua University and representative of the Hangzhou Open Source Artificial Intelligence Foundation, and Mazin Gilbert, GOAI Global Open-source Partner and Executive Director of the Agent AI Foundation, jointly presented the GOAI Grand Prize to the winning team.

Tang Hong, Vice President of Alibaba Cloud Intelligence Group; Lumbie Mlambo, Global Goals Ambassador of the United Nations; Shi Hongzhu, Head of ModelScope Community; Tae Wan Yun, Founder & Managing Partner of Open Intelligence LLC; Wu Qingbo, Chief Scientist of China Electronics; Messin, Venture Partner of XNode; Ma Yue, Chairman of OSCHINA and Founder of Hantuo Open Source; and Carlo Vittorio Cannistraci, Principal Investigator at Tsinghua University Brain and Intelligence Laboratory, presented awards to the champion teams of the four tracks in sequence.

In addition, Ma Tao, Chairman of the OpenAnolis Community, and Chen Xiangming, Founder and Chairman of Ginkgo Valley Capital, presented awards to the runners-up of the four tracks; Guo Wei, Founder and CEO of Baijing Open Source, and Lang Tao, Investment Partner of Vision Plus Capital, presented awards to the third-place winners of the four tracks.

The event also featured keynote speeches, summary remarks, and annual outlook sessions, conducting in-depth exchanges around AI technology frontiers, open collaboration, and industry applications.

Mazin Gilbert, GOAI Global Open-source Partner and Executive Director of the Agent AI Foundation, stated in his keynote speech that open collaboration can transcend geographical and organizational boundaries, accelerating the flow, sharing, and reuse of innovation outcomes. Hangzhou and Zhejiang are gathering global AI innovation forces through competitions, industry, and community platforms, providing more opportunities for developer exchange, technical verification, and young talent growth, and continuously deepening connections with the global open-source ecosystem.

Professor Wang Yu, speaking on behalf of the organizer, stated that a competition can discover excellent projects, but the end of a competition does not mean the end of project growth. Going forward, the Hangzhou Open-source Artificial Intelligence Foundation will continue to connect developers, open-source communities, industry scenarios, and innovation resources, driving more open-source outcomes toward real-world applications.

At the end of the event, Global Open-source AI Challenge 2027 outlook video " A New Chapter in Open-Source AI" was officially released, leaving new expectations for the next phase of the competition’s development.

From Competition to Ecosystem Connection: GOAI Open-source Week Extends Innovation Value

Beyond the Finals, from September 20 to 24, the GOAI Open-source Week continued with a series of activities centered on competition, community, industry, and talent exchange.

During the event, a series of activities including the Open Source Bazaar, Corporate Hackathons, Meetups, Industry & Venture Capital Matchmaking Sessions, Sci-Tech Talent Recruitment Fair and Open-Source Innovation Scenario Matchmaking Sessions were held successively. These activities built a platform for developers from diverse technical fields, countries and regions to communicate and cooperate, facilitating technical exchanges, project collaboration and industrial resource matching. Multiple events were open to the public, bringing open-source AI innovation from professional dialogues to broader public participation and raising public awareness of AI technologies and the open-source ecosystem.

Among them, activities such as industry and venture capital matchmaking further connect outstanding projects with corporate application scenarios, investment institutions and innovation resources. On the afternoon of September 23rd, representatives from investment and industrial institutions held one-on-one exchanges with finalist teams. In-depth discussions covered project technical maturity, productization roadmap, application scenarios, business models and financing needs. Some project teams reached preliminary intentions with relevant institutions for follow-up scenario verification, industrial cooperation, investment and incubation.

The industry observation mechanism established during the competition also allowed professionals from enterprises, investment, and frontline industry ecosystems to enter project evaluation and demonstration venues in advance, identifying teams with further collaboration potential during the competition. Through the connection from "in-competition observation" to "post-competition matchmaking," excellent projects can more quickly reach real industry needs and external resources.

From project discovery and technical verification to community exchange and industry matchmaking, Global Open-source AI Challenge seeks to make the competition more than a one-time showcase of outcomes, but rather a long-term gateway connecting developers, technical projects, open-source communities, industry scenarios, and capital resources.

Previously, Global Open-source AI Challenge also visited innovation cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Silicon Valley, and Singapore, conducting face-to-face exchanges with global developers, research teams, and technical communities. Participants from six continents and 91 countries and regions thus jointly constituted the diverse and open innovation landscape of this year’s competition.

Gathering Intelligence Through Competition: Hangzhou Continuously Connects Global AI Innovation Resources

The landing of Global Open-source AI Challenge in Hangzhou is not only a competitive gala gathering global AI innovation forces, but also a brand-new bridge for Hangzhou to connect global developers, open-source communities, and industry resources.

Global Open-source AI Challenge is a vivid microcosm of Hangzhou’s deep integration into global AI open-source ecosystem development. In this competition, global developers, research teams, and open-source projects gathered across mountains and seas, allowing technology to collide and resources to connect here, further demonstrating Hangzhou’s innovation vitality and ecosystem foundation for global open collaboration.

Relying on its digital economy industrial foundation, tech enterprise clusters, university research strengths, and rich application scenarios, Hangzhou is providing more possibilities for AI development—from innovation R&D and scenario verification to industry collaboration; while innovation forces from around the world are also accelerating their integration into Hangzhou’s industrial ecosystem network through Global Open-source AI Challenge , jointly writing a new chapter in AI open-source collaboration.

Artificial intelligence is the shared intellectual crystallization and precious wealth of all humanity. From the competition’s launch to the Finals’ conclusion, "Open. Share. Build." has run throughout. Open means gathering more innovation forces through openness; Share means enabling technology, experience, and outcomes to flow continuously through sharing; Build means continuously improving excellent outcomes in practical application through joint building.

"Open. Share. Build." is not only the core philosophy of this year’s competition, but also an important bond for Global Open-source AI Challenge to connect global developers, open-source communities, and industry ecosystems.

The conclusion of Global Open-source AI Challenge does not mean the end of open collaboration.

Going forward, Global Open-source AI Challenge will continue to be guided by "Open. Share. Build.", continuously connecting developers, open-source communities, and industry ecosystems, and driving more excellent projects and technical outcomes to gain opportunities for exchange, verification, and sustained development.

Looking ahead, Hangzhou will continue to deepen the development of its AI open-source ecosystem, gathering global developers and innovation forces with a more open stance, enabling more AI innovation outcomes to be discovered through openness, grow continuously through collaborative sharing, be verified in real scenarios, and accelerate implementation in fertile industry ground, contributing more Hangzhou strength to the prosperity and development of the global AI open-source ecosystem.

Official Website: https://www.goaihz.com/

Ada Wang
goai@goaihz.com