​-invite-only event-

​3rd Open LLM Builders Summit – September 30, 2026 at ETH AI Center

​The third edition of the Open LLM Builders Summit will be held on 30 September 2026 at the ETH Meeting Center (14th floor) in Zurich, as an official event of the Zurich AI Festival.

​The event is organized by the Swiss AI Initiative of the Swiss National AI Institute, coordinated by the ETH AI Center and EPFL AI Center. The summit will bring together leading international initiatives developing open foundation models, as well as infrastructure providers, researchers, and policymakers, to chart the path toward global, open, and collaborative AI development.

​Schedule (tentative)

​8:30-9:30 | Registration & Coffee

​9:30-10:30 | Open-Source Initiatives

• ​From Open Text Models to Open Multimodal Reasoners (Imanol Schlag, Martin Jaggi, Antoine Bosselut; ETH Zurich & EPFL)

• ​Open Athena & Marin (Jeff Hammerbacher; Open Athena)

​10:30-11:00 | Coffee

​11:00-12:15 | Open-Source Initiatives

• ​SEA-LION: Building Southeast Asia's Open Model for the Region (Wai Yi Leong; AI Singapore)

• ​K2 Horizon & Collaboration Opportunities (Ahmad Chamma; IFM/MBZUAI)

• ​A series of foundation models for transparent AI in Europe (Matthias Bethge; OpenEuroLLM)

• ​Open Frontier: How to Get There and to How Stay On It (Jenia Jistev; LAION)

• ​Building Public Interest AI Technology Together (Joshua Tan; Current AI)

​12:15 - 12:30 | Open-Weight Initiatives

• ​Nemotron 3: Open Models, Open Datasets, Open Techniques (Meriem Bendris; NVIDIA)

​12:30-13:40 | Group Picture, Lunch & Poster Session

​13:40-14:00 | Calls for Collaborative Projects from Major Facilities

• ​Machine Learning at Scale at the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre (Joost VandeVondele; CSCS)

• ​EuroHPC AI Factory Access Calls and Collaboration Opportunities (Tim Llewellynn, Euresearch)

​14:00-15:30 | Breakout rooms discussions

​15:30-16:00 | Coffee Break + Consolidation of Proposals

​16:00-17:00 | Discussion: Blueprints for Global Collaboration on Open LLMs

​17:00 | Conclusions & Apero

​📍 Location: ETH Meeting Center (14th floor), Zürich
🗓️ Date: Wednesday, 30 September 2026
🔗 Registration: https://luma.com/yz3g1757

​This edition’s focus is threefold:

• ​Highlighting progress from major open efforts

• ​Exploring how open models can be financed and supported in light of recent developments

• ​Identifying sustainable and competitive funding models for open AI to ensure long-term viability

​The summit welcomes contributors from research, government, and industry who are actively building transparent, multilingual, and mission-aligned AI systems for the public good. Participation is free, but registration is required.

​🚨 Please note: Space is limited and registration is subjected to approval prior confirmation.

​+++ This event is part of the Zurich AI Festival, taking place from September 28 to October 3, 2026. Zurich AI Festival unites the minds building the future - visionary founders, bold investors, and tech leaders shaping tomorrow. Connect to tomorrow!

​Zurich AI Festival is a flagship initiative presented by ETH AI Center, Greater Zurich Area, the City of Zurich, the Canton of Zurich, and Zurich Tourism, and supported by leading partners from academia, industry, government and the broader AI ecosystem.

​We look forward to welcoming you soon!

​Zurich AI Festival Team