Question: Why can't I access Nebius Token Factory / AI Cloud from my country?

Answer: A number of countries aren't yet supported in Nebius's billing/country-of-residence list for Token Factory onboarding. This is an account-provisioning gap on Nebius's side, not a hackathon eligibility rule - the Official Rules only exclude Brazil, Quebec, Russia, Crimea, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, and other OFAC-sanctioned countries. There is no Devpost-side workaround (e.g. billing under another region), please connect with the Nebius Team via Discord for more information. 

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Question: What's the difference between Token Factory credits and AI Cloud, and does my whole app need to run on Nebius?

Answer: Submissions must run on either Nebius Token Factory or Nebius AI Cloud and use at least one NVIDIA open-source model, per the Official Rules. Calling an NVIDIA model through Token Factory (e.g. via a Serverless Endpoint) satisfies this - the rest of your app (web frontend, unrelated backend processing) doesn't also need to be hosted on Nebius AI Cloud. On credits: the official promotional credits (direct-credits-form code NEBIUS-DEVPOST-GLOBAL26, and the Nebius Builders Program) are Token Factory credits specifically; there isn't a separate published AI Cloud credit grant.

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Question: Can Physical AI track submissions use simulation instead of a physical robot?

Answer: Yes. There's no required hardware list for the Physical AI track - you can build with simulation tools like Isaac Sim if you don't have physical hardware, as long as the project runs on Nebius Token Factory or AI Cloud and uses at least one NVIDIA open-source model, per the Official Rules.

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Question: Is NVIDIA Alpamayo (or other NVIDIA open models beyond Nemotron/GR00T/Cosmos/Sonic) allowed for the Physical AI track?

Answer: Yes, allowed. 

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Question: Does winning the a City Winner award require attending the city's event in person?

Answer: Yes.

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Question: Is there a maximum team size?

Answer: No. The Official Rules don't set a maximum team size - you can enter as an individual, a team of any size, or an organization, as long as everyone meets the eligibility requirements.

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Question: I joined the Nebius Builder Program / used the credits form but never received my promo credits (or my country is missing from the billing screen) - what do I do?

Answer: Being handled case by case with Nebius - please connect with the Nebius Team on Discord. 

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Question: Can I call an NVIDIA model through a different provider (e.g. HuggingFace / OpenRouter) instead of Nebius?

Answer: No - the Official Rules require a runtime call to Nebius Token Factory or deployment on Nebius AI Cloud. Using an NVIDIA open-source model through a different provider (HuggingFace, OpenRouter, etc.) wouldn't satisfy the platform requirement, and there's no approved workaround for that piece.

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