AWS Trainium Frontier Competition
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About this hackathon
An AWS competition to co-design language models and custom NKI kernels on Trainium2: Phase 1 (Aug 31–Sep 30, 2026) ranks models trained on a single chip within a strict 30-minute budget, starting from a nanochat-based pipeline. The top 10 move to full Trn2 servers in Phase 2 and compete for $40,000 ($25K/$10K/$5K), with finalists invited to present alongside Annapurna Labs researchers at NeurIPS 2026 in Sydney. Registration was capped at 100 teams of 1–4.
- Status
- Deadline
- 2026-09-30
- Starts
- 2026-08-31
- Who
- Professionals (ML researchers, systems engineers and agent builders of legal age; teams of 1–4, capped at the first 100 teams; GitHub and AWS accounts required)
- Level
- Advanced
- Prize
- $40k · $40,000 cash: $25K / $10K / $5K; finalists present at NeurIPS 2026 in Sydney
- Size
- —
- Format
- Online · International
- Location
- Seattle (online; placed at organizer’s city)
Browse similarOnline hackathonsAI hackathonsAI Coding hackathonsData hackathonsHackathons in September 2026
Original listing (Chinese)
The full original listing below is in Chinese, as published in the Hack123 newsletter.
一句话简介：AWS 办的线上算力竞赛，在自研 AI 芯片 Trainium2 上同时改模型结构和写自定义 NKI 算子，比谁在固定算力里训出的模型更好。
看点：第一阶段每队只有一块 Trainium2、30 分钟训练时间，从 nanochat 改的训练管线出发，按排行榜上的模型质量排名；前 10 名进入第二阶段，用整台 Trn2 服务器扩大训练；决赛队可以和 Annapurna Labs 研究员一起在 NeurIPS 2026 悉尼会场展示；名额只有 100 队
奖金：现金共 4 万美元，第一 2.5 万、第二 1 万、第三 5,000 美元
截止日期：2026年9月30日（第一阶段截止，报名满 100 队即关闭）（线上）
活动日期：2026年8月31日开始；第二阶段到 11 月 4 日，11 月 11 日定决赛队，12 月 NeurIPS 展示
Summarized from the organizer’s page and public posts. Please confirm details on the official site before registering.