Registration Announcement for the Global Open-source AI Challenge (GOAI)

To further advance the global open-source AI ecosystem, promote deep integration between AI developers, open-source communities, academic research teams, corporate technical groups, and industrial scenarios, and identify and support AI projects with outstanding open-source value, technological innovation, and practical application potential, the Global Open-source AI Challenge (GOAI) is now officially launched.

With "Open. Share. Build." as its core slogan, this year's Challenge invites AI Builders worldwide to participate in open-source innovation. Centered around four major track-Agent Infra, Boundless Agents, AI for Research, and Embodied Future -the Challenge calls for open-source AI projects featuring runnable demos, reusable code, clear technical documentation, and real-world application value, aiming to bring outstanding open-source outputs from code repositories into real-world scenarios.

The Challenge registration details are announced as follows.

1. Event Introduction

Initiated by the Hangzhou Open-source Artificial Intelligence Foundation, in partnership with global open-source partners such as the Agentic AI Foundation (AAIF) and the LF AI & Data Foundation, the Global Open-source AI Challenge (GOAI) is now open for registration to developers, open-source contributors, academic research teams, corporate AI teams, research institutions, startup teams, and AI Builders worldwide.

The Challenge is undertaken by core organizations including Zhejiang Lab,Alibaba Cloud Intelligence Group, Ant Group Co., Ltd., Hangzhou AILume Future Technology Co., Ltd., Yunshenchu Technology Co., Ltd., Manycore Tech Inc., and other leading institutions. It focuses on innovative practices in open-source AI technologies across infrastructure, industrial applications, scientific research, and embodied intelligence, with particular emphasis on the projects' technical originality, open-source value, engineering feasibility, scenario adaptability, and long-term growth potential.

Through online registration, project submission, preliminary review, semifinal coaching, final roadshows, project showcases, and industry matchmaking, this year's Challenge aims to identify a group of exemplary, high-potential open-source AI innovation projects that contribute to the development of an open, shared, and co-constructed global AI open-source ecosystem.

2. Goals of the Challenge

This year's Challenge focuses on building a vibrant open-source ecosystem and is guided by real-world applications and industrial value transformation. It aims to achieve the following goals:

  • Discover outstanding open-source AI projects: Call for AI projects worldwide that demonstrate technological innovation, open-source impact, and practical application potential.

  • Promote the practical application of open-source technologies: Encourage participating teams to build technical solutions and demos that are runnable, verifiable, and reproducible for real-world problems.

  • Promote global developer collaboration and collaborative development: Connect developers, research teams, open-source communities, industry partners, and investment institutions to build a cross-regional, cross-disciplinary, and cross-industry collaboration network.

  • Support the growth and transformation of outstanding projects: Empower the continuous development of outstanding projects through cash prize incentives, resource support, mentorship, community exposure, integration with industrial scenarios, and direct access to capital.

3. Organizational Structure

3.1 Host

  • Hangzhou Open-source Artificial Intelligence Foundation

3.2 Global Open-source Partners

  • Agentic AI Foundation (AAIF)
  • LF AI & Data Foundation

3.3 Organizers

  • Zhejiang Lab
  • Alibaba Cloud Intelligence Group
  • Ant Group Co., Ltd.
  • Hangzhou AILume Future Technology Co., Ltd.
  • Yunshenchu Technology Co., Ltd.
  • Manycore Tech Inc.

4. Instructions for Participation

4.1 Participants

The Challenge is open globally and welcomes the following teams or individuals to register and participate:

  1. Global developers, AI Builders, and independent developers;
  2. Open-source community contributors, open-source project teams;
  3. Universities, research institutes, laboratories, and interdisciplinary research teams;
  4. Enterprise AI, technology, and solution provider teams;
  5. Teams in related fields such as robotics, embodied intelligence, AI for Science, Agent Infra, etc.
  6. Startup and innovative teams focusing on open-source AI innovation, industrial applications, and the social value of artificial intelligence.

Participants may register individually or as part of a team. Specific rules on team size, member changes, real-name authentication, and other requirements, shall be subject to the Participant Handbook for each track and official announcements on the website.

4.2 Eligibility to Participate

  1. Participating teams must register through the official GOAI Challenge website and submit accurate, complete, and valid team and project information as required.
  2. Entries should present a clear technical direction, application scenario, or scientific research problem; purely conceptual proposals are not encouraged.
  3. Foundational materials, such as a runnable demo, accessible code, a technical solution description, an open-source plan, or reproducibility instructions, should support entries.
  4. Entries must comply with all applicable laws and regulations, Challenge rules, and organizing committee requirements; non-compliant entries will not be eligible to register.

5. Challenge Tracks

This year's Challenge features four major tracks. Participating teams may select the track that best aligns with their project direction when registering.

Track 1: Agent Infra

Focuses on multi-agent infrastructure, collaborative systems, tool invocation, observability, reusable skills, and enterprise-level engineering capabilities for complex task scenarios, advancing Agents from Demo to Production.

Track 2: Boundless Agents

Focuses on high-frequency scenarios such as personal devices, automotive and mobility, financial services, education, and industrial manufacturing, exploring agent applications that are runnable, demonstrable, and replicable.

Track 3: AI for Research

Focuses on AI for Science, scientific discovery, research agents, and cutting-edge interdisciplinary exploration. The Challenge encourages teams to transform scientific problems into computable, verifiable, and reproducible algorithmic solutions or AI-powered autonomous exploration environments.

Track 4: Embodied Future

Focusing on open-source embodied intelligence and its interaction with the physical world, this track encourages teams to develop functional demos and technical solutions in areas such as robotic manipulation, autonomous navigation, simulation-based training, and real-world task validation.

6. Registration Method

This year's Challenge adopts an online registration method.

Participating teams may log in to the official GOAI Challenge website (goaihz.com) starting July 16, 2026. On the registration page, click "Register Now," then complete the required fields, including team and member details, project overview, selected track, and supporting materials.

Once the registration channel opens, participating teams can check their registration status, access the Participant Handbook, submission guidelines, schedule, evaluation criteria, and other official notices on the website.

Participating teams must closely monitor the submission deadlines for their chosen track and submit all required materials on time.

7. Schedule

This year's Challenge consists of several stages, including registration opening, entry submission, preliminary review, semi-final mentoring, semi-final review, final roadshow, and the GOAI DAY exhibition.

Track Preliminary Submission Deadline
Agent Infra August 16, 23:59
Boundless Agents August 16, 23:59
AI for Research August 16, 23:59
Embodied Future August 20, 23:59

Teams may choose the track that aligns with their project focus. Submission deadlines vary across tracks; please confirm the deadlines in advance.

The Embodied Future Track will select its finalists directly based on preliminary-round rankings. The semifinal round for the other three tracks will run from August 25 to September 3. Finalists from all four tracks will convene in Hangzhou for the offline Grand Finals on September 22–23.

The Challenge schedule may be adjusted flexibly according to the actual progress of each track, subject to the Organizing Committee's final notice.

8. Submission Requirements

Participating teams shall submit the required materials for their selected track. These typically include, but are not limited to:

  • Project Introduction
  • Technical Proposal / Roadshow Deck
  • Code Repository Link
  • Runnable Demo / Demo Video
  • README / Deployment Guide / Dependency List
  • Open-source License Statement
  • Data, Model, Third-Party Dependency, and Compliance Statement
  • Project One-Pager / Presentation Materials / Other Track-Specific Materials

The Challenge particularly encourages submissions with the following characteristics:Runnable Demo, reusable code, clear documentation, open-source value, real-world scenario validation, and long-term growth potential.

9. Awards

This year's Challenge offers a total cash prize pool of 5 million RMB, covering the Grand Prize, champions, runners-up, and third-place finishers across the four major tracks, as well as several special awards.

Awards include, but are not limited to:

  • GOAI Grand Prize: 1 winner, prize of RMB 1 million;
  • Track Champion: one per track, up to RMB 500,000 per track;
  • Track Runner-up: one per track, up to RMB 300,000 per track;
  • Track Third Place: one per track, up to RMB 100,000 per track;
  • Special Awards: several, covering areas such as open-source innovation, technological breakthroughs, application value, and youth teams,with a total amount of no more than 400,000 yuan.

The specific names, quantities, amounts of prize money, and distribution rules for the awards shall be subject to the final announcements on the Challenge's official website and by the organizing committee.

10.  Ten Pillars of Support to Empower AI Innovation

  1. Multi-Million RMB Prize Pool: The competition offers a total cash prize pool of RMB 5 million, with the Grand Prize up to RMB 1 million.
  2. Token Credit Boost: Each track will supply participants with complimentary Token credits or equivalent resource packages to support project development and iterative upgrades.
  3. Expert Guided Training:  Teams receive in-depth guidance from industry scholars and experts covering technical roadmapping, product design and result presentation, with tailored professional advice for all projects.
  4. Open-Source Peer Community: We provide neutral open-source project hosting and governance support, connecting teams with open-source communities, developers and broad ecosystem partners.
  5. Direct Opportunity Access: Teams gain direct access to corporate recruitment, internship & technical exchange opportunities, helping standout projects and teams secure wider industry exposure.
  6. Exclusive First Launch Scenarios: Outstanding projects are eligible for real-world industrial validation in Hangzhou use cases, with dedicated scenario managers to match demand-side clients and application resources.
  7. Startup Acceleration: Award-winning and high-quality projects get matched with startup and growth resources to evolve competition prototypes into market-ready products.
  8. Direct Investor Connections: We link participants with over 30 investment institutions and venture capital resources totaling RMB 30 billion, with priority admission to HI+ Camp.
  9. End-to-End Implementation Support: End-to-end advisory services cover local settlement, company registration and daily operation consulting, cutting communication costs from technical validation to official launch.
  10. Workspace Support : Teams that settle locally and meet eligibility criteria receive dedicated office & startup spaces to speed up on-site collaboration and project growth.

*The specific resource support methods, application requirements, and implementation arrangements shall be subject to subsequent announcements by the Organizing Committee.

11. Intellectual Property and Open Source Requirements

  • The intellectual property rights in the results independently developed by the participating teams during the Challenge, including algorithms, code, technical solutions, documents, and demos, shall, in principle, belong to the participating teams.
  • Participating teams must ensure that the submitted works do not infringe the intellectual property rights of third parties and do not involve plagiarism, piracy, or unauthorized use of data or models.
  • The Challenge encourages the open-source release of participating works, and the open-source status will be one of the reference factors for project evaluation and bonus points.
  • If a participating team uses third-party open-source projects, commercial APIs, closed-source models, external data, or restricted resources, it must clearly disclose its sources, licenses, usage boundaries, and compliance status.
  • If any intellectual property disputes, data compliance issues, or third-party claims arise from the submitted works, the participating team shall solely bear all corresponding liabilities.

12. Participation Fees

The Challenge does not charge participating teams any registration, evaluation, exhibition, or other related fees.

Participating teams may apply for reimbursement of expenses incurred during the final round, including travel, accommodation, equipment preparation, project development, video production, offline roadshows, and on-site presentations, in accordance with the Organizing Committee's reimbursement policy. Reimbursement details, including the scope, standards, procedures, and required materials, shall be subject to subsequent notices from the Organizing Committee.

13. Challenge Languages

The Challenge is open worldwide. Participating teams may submit relevant materials in Chinese or English. Teams advancing to the final stage shall prepare roadshow materials, Demo presentations, and on-site defense content in accordance with the Organizing Committee's requirements.

14. Information Release and Inquiry

Important updates regarding the Challenge will be continuously published on the official Challenge website and channels, including registration notices, track handbooks, submission guidelines, evaluation schedules, advancement results, final-round notices, and event updates.

Official website: goaihz.com
Contact email: goai@goaihz.com
Official community: Subject to announcements on the website and by the Organizing Committee

Important updates regarding the Challenge will be continuously published on the official Challenge website and channels, including registration notices, track handbooks, submission guidelines, evaluation schedules, advancement results, final-round notices, and event updates.

15. Additional Notes

This announcement serves as the registration guidelines for the Global Open-source AI Challenge. Specific details regarding the Challenge format, schedule, awards, resources, submission requirements, and evaluation rules shall be found on the official Challenge website, the Participant Handbook for each track, and the latest communications from the Organizing Committee.

To ensure the quality of event organization, the Organizing Committee reserves the right to adjust the schedule, track setup, review mechanism, award settings, and related rules based on actual circumstances.

For any matters not specified herein, the Organizing Committee will issue separate notices via the official website and official channels.

The right of final interpretation of this Challenge shall be vested in the Organizing Committee of the Global Open-source AI Challenge.

The Global Open-source AI Challenge is now open for registration worldwide. We welcome global developers, open-source contributors, academic research teams, corporate AI teams, research institutions, startup teams, and AI Builders to log in to goaihz.com to register and jointly build an open, shared, and co-constructed global AI open-source ecosystem.