LOS ANGELES — August 19, 2026 — Build with Gemini XPRIZE, a $2M global competition challenging builders worldwide to use AI to develop scalable solutions to real-world problems , announced its four judges: ARK Invest founder and CEO Cathie Wood, Anduril Industries founder Palmer Luckey, Zynga founder Mark Pincus, XPRIZE CEO Anousheh Ansari, and Google DeepMind's Logan Kilpatrick, who leads Google AI Studio and the Gemini API. The panel will help choose the prize winners, revealed live at Moonshots Live on September 25 in Los Angeles.
Powered by Google's full AI stack, the competition calls on anyone to build a scalable AI business across five categories: Education & Human Potential, Entrepreneurship & Job Creation, Small Business Services, Money & Financial Access, and Professional Services Access. Teams must acquire real users and generate revenue during the 90-day window. Submissions will be judged equally on business viability, AI-native operations, and category impact.
The $2M prize pool awards $500,000 for first place, $200,000 for second, and $100,000 each for third through fifth place, plus fifteen runner-up prizes of $50,000 and five category prizes of $50,000. Submissions closed August 17, with five finalists advancing to pitch live at Moonshots Live.
Moonshots Live brings together 1,500+ builders, filmmakers, and investors for a day of live competition and conversations with Peter Diamandis, Astro Teller, Ben Lamm, Jeremy Allaire, and more. The event pairs the Build with Gemini XPRIZE finalist pitches with the awards ceremony for Future Vision XPRIZE, a $3.5M+ global competition for optimistic science fiction filmmaking, followed by an evening of networking.
THE JUDGES
Cathie Wood — Founder, CEO & Chief Investment Officer, ARK Invest
Cathie Wood is the Founder, CEO, and Chief Investment Officer of ARK Invest, an asset management firm that focuses on disruptive innovation. She has spent her career investing in emerging technologies before they reach broad adoption and has become a leading voice on AI’s potential to transform the global economy.
Palmer Luckey — Founder, Anduril Industries; Founder, Oculus VR
Palmer Luckey founded Oculus VR at 19 and sold it to Facebook at 21, kickstarting the modern virtual reality industry. He later founded Anduril Industries, now one of the world’s most valuable private defense companies in the world. His career has centered on building ambitious companies in industries long considered difficult to disrupt.
Mark Pincus — Founder, Zynga & Co-Founder, Reinvent Capital
Mark Pincus founded Zynga in the early days of mobile gaming and scaled it into a category-defining company that reached hundreds of millions of players worldwide and created the playbook for viral consumer products. Beyond gaming, he has founded ventures like Freeloader, Tribe.net, Support.com, and the investment firm Reinvent Capital, building a career around ambitious companies in categories others hadn't yet imagined.
Anousheh Ansari — CEO, XPRIZE
Anousheh Ansari is CEO of XPRIZE and a serial entrepreneur who co-founded and sold two technology companies before becoming the first female private space explorer. Her family's support for the Ansari XPRIZE launched the commercial spaceflight industry; under her leadership, the organization has launched over $300M in incentive competitions that catalyze social and economic impact across sectors.
Logan Kilpatrick — Member of Technical Staff, Google DeepMind
Logan Kilpatrick leads Google AI Studio and the Gemini API at Google DeepMind — the tools most of this competition's entrants used to build. Previously he led developer relations at OpenAI. Few people have watched more developers go from an idea to a shipped product on frontier models.
Attendance at Moonshots Live is by application. Apply to attend at moonshots.com
Submissions for Build with Gemini XPRIZE closed August 17, 2026. Learn more here geminixprize.com.
ABOUT XPRIZE
XPRIZE is the recognized global leader in designing and executing large-scale competitions to solve humanity's greatest challenges. For over 30 years, our unique model has democratized crowd-sourced innovation and scientifically scalable solutions that accelerate a more equitable and abundant future. Donate, learn more, and co-architect a world of abundance with us at xprize.org.
ABOUT BUILD WITH GEMINI XPRIZE
Build with Gemini XPRIZE is a $2M global competition any builder worldwide 90 days to launch a revenue-generating, AI-powered business. Presented by XPRIZE and founded by Peter Diamandis, with Google as presenting technology partner and Devpost as competition administrator,the competition awards $2M across 25 winning projects
Submissions close August 17, 2026. Learn more at geminixprize.com.
ABOUT MOONSHOTS LIVE
Moonshots Live is a single-day event on September 25, 2026, at the United Theater and Belasco in Los Angeles, the shared finale for Future Vision XPRIZE and Build with Gemini XPRIZE, bringing more than 1,500 builders, filmmakers, and investors together to announce both competitions' winners.
ABOUT MOONSHOTS
Moonshots is the media and events organization behind Future Vision XPRIZE, Build with Gemini XPRIZE, and Moonshots Live, built to put real resources behind people building and telling the story of a better future.