Info Session: AI Efficiency Challenge
Join us for one of our info sessions to answer all your questions about the AI Efficiency Challenge, a new funding opportunity under STRIDE Ventures. This session is for innovators, researchers, engineers, and deployment-ready teams working on technologies that improve the efficiency of AI systems across training, inference, and data center operations.
What to Expect
Overview of the AI Efficiency Challenge: Learn about our milestone-driven, three-stage funding model designed to accelerate the deployment of high-impact efficiency technologies into real-world, production-scale AI systems — strengthening U.S. competitiveness in the global AI landscape.
Funding Structure:
Awards of up to $3.5 million per project, scaled to deployment scope and resource requirements
Support for collaborative teams pairing technology innovators (Pitchers) with large-scale AI operators (Catchers)
A streamlined Fast Track option for teams ready to move quickly toward implementation
A go/no-go evaluation framework ensuring resources flow to projects with measurable impact
Program Benefits: Discover how the Challenge helps deployment-ready teams advance efficiency technologies through funding, feedback from expert jurors, visibility, and access to a national network of AI infrastructure, compute, and innovation specialists.
Q&A: Engage directly with the STRIDE team and get answers to your specific questions, including the application process, eligibility, evaluation criteria, program structure, and how to strengthen your submission.
Who Should Attend:
Researchers, algorithm designers, and systems engineers with translation-ready AI efficiency technologies
Cloud providers, enterprise platforms, and large compute operators capable of deploying solutions at scale
Benchmarking specialists focused on defining and validating AI efficiency metrics
Teams seeking funding to rapidly move proven efficiency innovations from development into production environments
We're hosting multiple info sessions to fit your schedule. Below are all available dates:
Thursday, May 28 at 2:00pm ET — Sign up here
Thursday, June 11 at 2:00pm ET — You're viewing this session
Thursday, June 25 at 2:00pm ET — Sign up here
Tuesday, July 7 at 2:00pm ET — Sign up here