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AMD Developer Hackathon: ACT II

Build AI agents and high-performance AI apps on AMD GPUs in the cloud I Prize Pool $10,000

To participate in the hackathon, simply click Sign up with AMD. If you are not already a member of the AMD AI Developer Program (ADP), you will need to create an account.

 

ADP members can access AI tutorials, experts, and community support. In addition, new members can claim a free month of DeepLearning.ai pro, $100 in AMD GPU cloud credits, and $50 in Fireworks AI API credits.


All hackathon participants will receive on hackathon launch additional compute and API credits for their projects.

Ready to build what's next on AMD? Sign up with AMD below to secure your spot.

AMD Developer Hackathon: ACT II event thumbnail
About

The AMD Developer Hackathon: ACT II is a hands-on event for developers, founders, engineers, and builders who want to push what's possible with AI on real infrastructure.

At the center of it: AI Agents - a space to explore intelligent workflows, automation, and real AI applications. Whether you're just starting out or already building, you can jump in and start creating.

You'll be working with AMD AI Developer Cloud, ROCm, and Fireworks AI API, all fully in the cloud, so you can focus on building instead of setup.

What participants get

AMD AI Developer Program members unlock cloud credits, training resources, expert access, and opportunities to get their work recognized.

πŸŽ“ AMD AI Academy

Access AMD AI Academy courses, technical resources, tutorials, documentation, and developer learning content.

πŸ§‘β€πŸ’» AMD Expert Access

Connect with AMD engineers and technical experts through member community channels and office hours.

πŸ’¬ Private Community Access

Get access to community channels, personalized updates, and early registration opportunities for AMD developer events.

πŸ† Project Recognition

Get opportunities for project recognition, including potential showcase on AMD social channels or at AMD developer events.

πŸš€ Fully Cloud-Based

Everything runs fully in the cloud, so no local hardware setup is required to participate and build.

AMD GPU Cloud Access and Credits

On hackathon start, details for AMD GPU cloud access and credits will be provided. Benefits are provided through the AMD AI Developer Program and may be subject to AMD's terms, eligibility, and availability.

Referral Program

Refer friends and earn points

Invite other builders with your personal referral link. Once you're approved, you can generate your link from the event dashboard and start sharing.

1

Get approved

Register for the hackathon and wait until your enrollment is approved.

2

Generate your link

Open your dashboard and click "Generate referral link."

3

Share and track

Share your link and track referral activity from your dashboard, live page, or profile.

How points work

Earn 200 points when someone joins through your link and submits a project. Referred participants can earn 100 points when they submit.

⚠️

Minimum threshold to qualify for the referral prizes

You must refer at least 100 approved participants to be eligible for referral prizes β€” even if you finish in the top 3 on the leaderboard.

Referral activity appears after invited participants enroll and get approved.

Challenge
AMD Developer Hackathon: ACT II

Three tracks. Real AMD hardware. Pick your challenge.

Whether you're shipping your first AI agent or building your next startup, ACT II has a track for you. Build on AMD Developer Cloud, ROCm, and Fireworks AI API credits.

All submissions must be containerized.

Track 1 ⭐ Beginner Friendly · AI Agent Track

Hybrid Token-Efficient Routing Agent

Build an AI agent that gets the job done using the least tokens possible.

Tasks are revealed at kickoff. Your agent must complete each one autonomously by deciding in real time whether to use a local model or call a remote model via Fireworks AI credits. The goal: pick the cheapest option every time, without falling below the accuracy threshold.

Every submission is scored on a standardized environment. You can develop and test on any hardware, but final scoring runs on this standardized environment only. Local models must therefore be sized to run within these constraints, so routing intelligence wins, not raw compute power.

We recommend running a local eval step to check your output quality before submitting.

Want to fine-tune your router? Go for it. Prompt-based and fine-tuned approaches are scored exactly the same way: token count and output accuracy.

Models to be used will be revealed on launch day.

πŸ’‘ Build Ideas
Model Router / Cost Optimizer A routing layer that reads each query and instantly picks the cheapest, best-suited model from the available endpoints.
Level Beginner
Judging Token count and output accuracy
Compute Local model + Fireworks AI API
Track 2 🎬 Beginner Friendly · Have Fun

Video Captioning

Four styles. Endless creativity. Let your humor bone shine.

You'll receive a fixed set of short video clips. Your pipeline must generate a caption or summary for each one in four distinct styles: formal, sarcastic, humorous-tech, and humorous-non-tech.

Models are accessed via Fireworks AI API credits. Fine-tuning is explicitly permitted β€” you may also train your own captioner and use it alongside or instead of prompting. Use open datasets, build your own, or both. Models to be used will be revealed on launch day.

Level Beginner
Judging LLM-Judge for accuracy and tone
Compute Fireworks AI API
Track 3 πŸ¦„ All Levels

Unicorn Track

Your idea. AMD infrastructure. No benchmarks, no constraints β€” just build.

Use any open-source models and frameworks alongside AMD GPUs and/or Fireworks AI API credits to build a product- or startup-oriented project.

There is no fixed performance benchmark. Submissions are not scored on speed, token usage, or accuracy. Judges are looking for creativity, originality, completeness, use of AMD platforms, and product/market potential. Think startup pitch, not benchmark run.

Level All skill levels and any tech stack
Judging Creativity, originality, completeness, use of AMD platforms, product/market potential
Compute AMD GPUs + Fireworks AI API

Technology & Access

Build using AMD Developer Cloud with AMD GPUs, ROCm, Fireworks AI API, and open-source AI frameworks.

Everything runs fully in the cloud, so teams can focus on building, experimenting, benchmarking, and scaling AI workloads without managing infrastructure.

AMD Developer Cloud

On-demand access to AMD GPUs for training, fine-tuning, benchmarking, and deploying AI workloads.

New AMD AI Developer Program (ADP) sign-ups only
β€’ $100 in AMD Developer Cloud credits
β€’ Access to AMD GPUs
β€’ Fully cloud-based development

Fireworks AI API

Fast, scalable API access to AMD-hardware models for inference, fine-tuning, and building AI-powered pipelines.

New AMD AI Developer Program (ADP) sign-ups only
β€’ $50 in Fireworks AI API credits
β€’ Access to AMD-hardware hosted models
β€’ Models to be revealed on launch day

ROCm

ROCm is AMD's open-source GPU computing platform for AI, ML, and high-performance workloads on AMD GPUs.

β€’ Running PyTorch and TensorFlow on AMD GPUs
β€’ Porting CUDA workloads to AMD hardware
β€’ High-performance AI and ML workloads

AMD Training and Learning Resources

Participants also get access to curated AI learning resources, tutorials, hands-on labs, and training materials to help them build faster.

β€’ Free access to AMD training resources
β€’ Hands-on labs with real GPU access
β€’ DeepLearning.AI resources for advanced content

Prizes

πŸ† Total Prize Pool: $10,000

πŸ₯‡ 1st Place
$5,000
Awarded to the top overall project
πŸ₯ˆ 2nd Place
$3,000
Runner-up project prize
πŸ₯‰ 3rd Place
$2,000
Top finalist project award
Referral Program
Earn up to $500 just for spreading the word
$1,000 referral pool
πŸ₯‡
Top referrer
$250 cash + $250 Natively credits
$500
total
πŸ₯ˆ
2nd referrer
$150 cash + $150 Natively credits
$300
total
πŸ₯‰
3rd referrer
$100 cash + $100 Natively credits
$200
total
⚠️
Minimum threshold: You must refer at least 100 approved participants to qualify for referral prizes, even if you finish in the top 3 on the leaderboard.
Please note: Participation in lablab.ai hackathons is voluntary. Prizes and opportunities depend on eligibility, availability, and third-party sponsors, for whom lablab.ai is not responsible. Hackathon rules, prizes, and terms may change or be canceled at our discretion. Submissions must be original and MIT-compliant. Prize distribution may take up to 90 days.

Community and Social Channels

Stay connected with the teams behind the hackathon and follow along for updates, highlights, and future opportunities.

lablab.ai

NativelyAI

AMD

What to submit?

Submit your project through the lablab.ai platform before the deadline. Make sure all fields below are completed.

πŸ“‹ Basic Information

  • β€’ Project Title
  • β€’ Short Description
  • β€’ Long Description
  • β€’ Technology and Category Tags

πŸ“Έ Cover Image and Presentation

  • β€’ Cover Image
  • β€’ Video Presentation
  • β€’ Slide Presentation

πŸ’» App Hosting and Code Repository

  • β€’ Public GitHub Repository
  • β€’ Demo Application Platform
  • β€’ Application URL

Important Requirements

β€’ Your project must be submitted through the lablab.ai platform before the deadline.

β€’ All submissions must be containerized.

β€’ Your GitHub repository must be public and include a README with setup and usage instructions.

β€’ The application must be runnable using the provided instructions.

⏰ Submission Deadline

Check the Event Schedule tab β€” the deadline is always up to date and shown in your local timezone.

For general lablab.ai submission guidance, please visit Submission Guidelines.

lablab.ai β€” Hackathon Submissions Process

Judging Criteria

Scoring varies by track. Tracks 1 and 2 are ranked via leaderboard. Track 3 β€” Unicorn Track is evaluated by judges using the criteria below.

Tracks 1 and 2
Scored via leaderboard. Refer to the track details for scoring criteria.
See track details
Track 3 β€” Unicorn Track
Judged on the criteria below.

Completeness

How fully realized and functional the submitted project is.

Use of AMD Platforms

How meaningfully AMD infrastructure is incorporated into the project.

Hackathon Details

Everything you need to know before you register and start building.

πŸ› οΈ How to participate

To access credits and be approved for the hackathon, participants must sign up for the AMD AI Developer Program.

The hackathon takes place online on the lablab.ai platform. Click the Enroll button on this page to register.

🦸 Who can join?

Anyone with a passion for AI is welcome. To participate, simply sign up on lablab.ai and register for the AMD AI Developer Program.

πŸ‘₯ What about teams?

If you don't have a team yet, connect with other builders and find teammates on the lablab.ai Discord Server. Join the conversation and start building with others from day one.

πŸ’¬ AMD Discord Server

Join the AMD Discord for infrastructure questions, hardware, software, and AMD AI Academy tutorials and support throughout the hackathon.

🧠 Get prepared

To get ready for the hackathon, visit the lablab.ai AI Tech pages to read up on all available technologies, and check out the tutorials page for practical guides and inspiration. Get a head start on your project using the resources on lablab.ai.

Note: To access hackathon credits and resources, make sure you have signed up for the AMD AI Developer Program before the hackathon starts.

Speakers, Mentors & Judges

Pawel Czech
Pawel Czech
CEO
Surge
Joseph Spence
Joseph Spence
Founder & Chairman
NativelyAI
Andrea Marazzi
Andrea Marazzi
Founder & CCO
NativelyAI
Nichol Bradford
Nichol Bradford
Founder
Human Tech Week & Niremia Collective
Paul Williams
Paul Williams
Chief Procurement Officer
University of California Office of the President
James Lloyd
James Lloyd
AI Strategic Advisor
NEOM
Hari Kanagala
Hari Kanagala
Group Product Manager AI/ML
RB Global
Mallika Rao
Mallika Rao
Engineering Lead-Netflix, Walmart, Twitter
Netflix
Vasu Raj Jain
Vasu Raj Jain
Senior Software Engineer
amazon
Anton Kiselev
Anton Kiselev
Lead backend developer
dapt
Sriharsha Makineni
Sriharsha Makineni
Business Engineer
Meta
Shaktesh Pandey
Shaktesh Pandey
AI Engineer | GenAI Systems | RAG Architect | LLMOps
Free lancer
Syed Affan
Syed Affan
Full-Stack AI Developer
Khalifa University Enterprises Company
Suneeth Maraboina
Suneeth Maraboina
Technology Leader
Apple
Japjit Singh
Japjit Singh
Applied AI Product Lead
Google cloud
Mahati Kumar
Mahati Kumar
Software Engineer
Meta
Dharmendra Singh
Dharmendra Singh
Senior Software Engineering Manager
Workday
Ramine Rosen
Ramine Rosen
Corporate VP, AI
AMD
Neha Manjunath
Neha Manjunath
Senior Research Scientist
Hippocratic AI
Sasha Aptlin
Sasha Aptlin
Founding AI Engineer @ ReachRx.ai
lablab.ai
Ken Huang
Ken Huang
Adjunct Professor
University of San Francisco
Aanjanaye Kajaria
Aanjanaye Kajaria
Founder & CEO
Fumav
Ramakanta Samal
Ramakanta Samal
Senior Software Engineer
IBM
Maharshi Trivedi
Maharshi Trivedi
Product Applications Engineer
AMD
Mahdi Ghodsi
Mahdi Ghodsi
AI Solution Architect
AMD
Pavan Gondhi
Pavan Gondhi
Sr Vice President
JP morgan
Sanem Avcil
Sanem Avcil
AI & Blockchain Advisor
Kaisvault
Rahul Gupta
Rahul Gupta
Head of AI Foundry
Evergreen
Vishal Paul
Vishal Paul
Senior Software Engineer, Core Platforms Team
PayPal
Jeff Boudier
Jeff Boudier
VP of Product
Hugging Face
Pawel Czech
Pawel Czech
CEO
Surge
Andrea Marazzi
Andrea Marazzi
Founder & CCO
NativelyAI
Pawel Czech
Pawel Czech
CEO
Surge
Andrea Marazzi
Andrea Marazzi
Founder & CCO
NativelyAI
Nick Ni
Nick Ni
Sr Director, AI Group
AMD
Pawel Czech
Pawel Czech
CEO
Surge
Andrea Marazzi
Andrea Marazzi
Founder & CCO
NativelyAI

Event Schedule

  • To be announced