Firebird Build Hackathon Concludes in Yerevan with $105,000 in Prizes and API Credits

Firebird Build took place on September 26–27 at AI9 Startup Campus in Yerevan, bringing together engineers and researchers for an intensive 24-hour development sprint. Participants used artificial intelligence tools to tackle real-world challenges, turning their ideas into working prototypes.

The event was initiated by Firebird in collaboration with OpenAI, NVIDIA, Picsart, the Union of Advanced Technology Enterprises (UATE), AI9, and YerevaNN.

“This event reflects Firebird’s vision of bringing AI computing capacity and technology to markets with substantial talent and expertise but limited access to established infrastructure. Our goal is to help turn that potential into new products and companies. Firebird Build is a practical step toward that goal, enabling people to put their ideas into action right here in Armenia,” said Alexandr Yesayan, Co-Founder of Firebird.

Teams were challenged to develop working product prototypes within 24 hours using OpenAI Codex, with mentorship from technology professionals. Their projects explored AI applications in robotics and physical AI, healthcare, environmental protection, cybersecurity, and other fields.

“The response from our community has been incredibly encouraging. We received more than 500 applications, demonstrating how valuable this opportunity was to our technology sector and how strong the demand is. Armenia is becoming a regional AI hub, and we extended this opportunity to our international partners, welcoming a team from Georgia as well. Through the strategic partnership between Firebird and UATE, we will continue organizing events like this to create new opportunities for our technology community,” said Edita Ghazaryan, Executive Director of UATE.

Participant Sargis Ginosyan and his team developed a product for the advertising industry. He said the event helped them accomplish in a single day what might otherwise have taken months.

“We entered the hackathon as three friends, and it pushed us to achieve in 24 hours what could otherwise have taken several months. We even put together our sales plan during the event. I’m glad Armenia has a company of Firebird’s scale organizing events like this, because they open up opportunities to find new solutions and bring ideas to life,” Ginosyan said.

The hackathon offered a total prize package of $105,000, comprising $80,000 in cash prizes and $25,000 in API credits provided by OpenAI. The credits will enable the winning teams to use OpenAI’s services to further develop their solutions.

First place went to PhotonicsAI, which developed an AI control environment integrated with hardware. The team was awarded $50,000 in cash and $12,000 in OpenAI API credits.

Second place went to “Why isn’t there an Ollama for VLAs?”, which developed infrastructure for training vision-language-action (VLA) models for robotics. The team received $20,000 in cash and $8,000 in OpenAI API credits.

Third place went to EXPM, which developed an autonomous security platform powered by AI agents. The platform automatically identifies vulnerabilities, proposes fixes, and tests them. The team received $10,000 in cash and $5,000 in OpenAI API credits.

Firebird Build is part of the company’s broader vision to expand opportunities for local professionals and startups alongside the development of AI infrastructure. Through initiatives like this, Firebird is helping create an environment where teams in Armenia can access advanced technology and international expertise to develop products for global markets.