Moonshots LIVE · An invitation from AI Valley
MOONSHOTSLIVE AI Valley
Judging this year: Neil deGrasse Tyson, Neal Stephenson, Mira Lane, Rod Roddenberry, Palmer Luckey, Cathie Wood, Anousheh Ansari, Mark Pincus and Logan Kilpatrick.
An invitation from AI Valley

Readers of AI Valley are pre-approved.

The top five from each of two competitions pitch live to the judges, for real money, in front of you. Between the pitches, a full day of teaching from the people funding and building what comes next. Hosted by Peter Diamandis.

Moonshots LIVE is application-only. AI Valley readers skip that step. Five builders pitch AI companies built in 90 days and $2M is decided in the room, so pick your seat below and you’re in.

Claim your seat See the full day
Competing
30,000+
Registered across both prizes
On stage
10
Pitches, judged live
Awarded live
$5.5M
In one day
In the room
1,500
Seats, approved by hand
Built with
Google XPRIZE Range Media Partners ARK Invest Salesforce Xsolla
Backed by
Marc BenioffFounder & CEO, Salesforce.
Seth GreenActor and producer. Co-founder, Stoopid Buddy Stoodios.
Balaji SrinivasanInvestor and author. Former CTO, Coinbase.
Dan MartellFounder & investor. Author of Buy Back Your Time.
Richard Merkin, MDFounder & CEO, Heritage Provider Network.
Jed McCalebFounding patron. Founded Stellar & Astro Mechanica.
Ben HorowitzCo-founder, Andreessen Horowitz.
Cathie WoodFounder & CEO, ARK Invest.

Also backed by Tom Sansone, Sidd Pagidipati, Scott Struthers, Alex Yastrebenetsky, Daniel Krizek, Giorgos Tsetis, Jack Hidary, Christian Angermeyer, Trevor Gile, and Alejandro Perez.

01 — Why we’re doing it

What the day is,
and why we’re doing it.

Most of the futures we get shown are the ones falling apart. The ruined city. The grim ending. The reason to brace.

That’s a failure of imagination, and an expensive one, because the future almost always arrives first as a story. Someone writes down the submarine, the video call, the trip to the moon, and decades later we build it.

So this year we put $5.5M behind the other kind of story, and behind the people building it. Two competitions, more than 30,000 people competing, and on September 25 the top five from each pitch live to the judges.

Optimism here is a decision, not a feeling. It’s the belief that problems are solvable, paired with the willingness to go solve them. Everyone in this room has already made it.

The future doesn’t happen to us. We are its authors.

02 — Who’s in the room

Who’s in the room.

1,500 seats. Every one of them approved by hand.

Award-winning filmmakers and directors. Creators with millions of followers, including Time100 honorees. Founders of public companies. NASA and SpaceX alumni. Novelists whose books engineers quote as design documents. A Forbes Top 50 Women in AI honoree. Investors writing checks into AI this quarter. The people who built the AI tools you used this week.

They’re flying in from 40+ countries. Most of them are building something you haven’t heard of yet. That’s the reason to come.

Where the room works
  • Amazon
  • Microsoft
  • Meta
  • Netflix
  • Adobe
  • TikTok
  • SpaceX
  • DARPA
  • MIT
  • Google DeepMind
  • Warner Bros. Discovery
  • Morgan Stanley
  • McKinsey
  • Bain
  • Kickstarter
  • Rotten Tomatoes
  • Cisco
  • Intuit
  • Niantic
  • Replit
  • Suno
  • Luma AI
  • Joby Aviation
  • Relativity Space
  • Vimeo
  • ASU

On stage, and judging.

Three on stage, nine judging, and the top five from each prize presenting live.

On stage
Peter H. Diamandis, MD
Peter H. Diamandis, MD
Host · Founder of XPRIZE and Singularity University
Ben Lamm
Ben Lamm
CEO, Colossal · brought back the dire wolf
Astro Teller
Astro Teller
Captain of Moonshots at X, Google’s moonshot factory
Judging the Future Vision XPRIZE
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Astrophysicist
Neal Stephenson
Neal Stephenson
Author of Snow Crash and Seveneves
Mira Lane
Mira Lane
VP, Technology & Society, Google
Rod Roddenberry
Rod Roddenberry
Executive Producer, Star Trek · hosts the reveal
Judging the Build with Gemini XPRIZE
Palmer Luckey
Palmer Luckey
Founder, Anduril
Cathie Wood
Cathie Wood
CEO, ARK Invest
Anousheh Ansari
Anousheh Ansari
CEO, XPRIZE
Mark Pincus
Mark Pincus
Founder, Zynga
Logan Kilpatrick
Logan Kilpatrick
Product Lead, AI Studio, Google

Photos of Mark Pincus and Neal Stephenson via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA.

03 — Your hosts

Peter Diamandis and
the Moonshots Mates.

Peter H. Diamandis

Peter launched XPRIZE in 1994 and put a $10M prize, funded by the Ansari family, on a private flight to space that nobody had made.

In 2004 somebody made it, and commercial spaceflight exists because of it.

He’s been designing prizes like that ever since, co-founded Singularity University, and written Abundance, BOLD and The Future Is Faster Than You Think.

Every week he sits down with Salim Ismail, Dave Blundin and Alex Wissner-Gross to argue about what’s actually happening in AI, energy, longevity and space. That’s the Moonshots podcast, and those three are the Moonshots Mates.

On September 25 they’re all in one room, in person, teaching for a full day instead of talking into microphones.

The Moonshots Mates
Salim Ismail
Salim Ismail
Moonshots Mate
Dave Blundin
Dave Blundin
Moonshots Mate
Alex Wissner-Gross, PhD
Alex Wissner-Gross, PhD
Moonshots Mate

Peter hosts the day. He does not judge either prize.

04 — The stakes

A film gets made.
A business gets funded.

Storytellers imagine the destination. Builders lay the path. Both get paid on the same stage.

Two competitions have been running all year, and they both end in this room.

Future Vision XPRIZE
$3.5M+
2,500 films submitted · five pitch live

2,500 filmmakers submitted a three-minute vision of a future worth living in. The top five pitch live on September 25.

The grand prize is a $2.5M grant to make the film, plus $100K in cash, and a production partnership with Range Media Partners. Through Republic Film, an SEC-licensed investment platform, the public will be able to invest in the winning film alongside us and share in what it earns.

Five trailers get shown for the first time anywhere that day. One of them becomes a movie.

futurevisionxprize.com →
Build with Gemini XPRIZE
$2M
$500K to first place

90 days to build a real AI business around a problem worth solving. The top five pitch in the room, live, to the judges. First place takes $500K.

Revenue is how they prove the thing worked. It was never the reason they built it.

geminixprize.com →
30,000+Registered to compete
10Pitches on stage
$5.5MAwarded in one day
1Film greenlit
05 — Where the money goes

Where the money goes.

Bar length is prize weight.

Future Vision XPRIZE $3.1M+
Grand prize$2.6M
Four runners-up · each$100K
Top 10 winners · each$10K
Republic Film crowd-investment

Through our partnership with Republic Film, the SEC-licensed investment platform, we will launch a public investment campaign for the Grand Prize winner to raise an additional $1M+ in production funding.

This gives sci-fi fans everywhere the chance to invest in the winning film and share in its profit potential.

Build with Gemini XPRIZE $2M
1st place$500K
2nd place$200K
3rd – 5th · each$100K
Runners-up · each$50K
Category · each$50K

$1,750,000 grand pool + $250,000 across five categories. Category bar is the highest-grossing team in each of five categories.

06 — What you’ll do

What you’ll actually do.

Doors at 8 in the morning. Out at 10 at night. Here’s the shape of it.

Morning

The AI companies

Five teams that built a real business in 90 days pitch live to Palmer Luckey, Cathie Wood, Anousheh Ansari, Mark Pincus and Logan Kilpatrick. $2M gets decided in front of you.

Midday

Moonshots training

Four working sessions, no filler. Alex Wissner-Gross on solving everything. Salim Ismail on what happens to an organization when AI runs the work. Dave Blundin on investing in AI. Cathie Wood on ARK’s 2026 Big Ideas report, with invited CEOs in the room.

Late afternoon

The films

Rod Roddenberry hosts. Five trailers premiere, then get judged by Neil deGrasse Tyson, Neal Stephenson, Mira Lane and Rod. The winner’s film gets made.

Evening

Receptions

Open bar, music, and the finalists and faculty staying in the room instead of leaving through a side door.

Night

Four rooms, rotating

Anousheh Ansari on how to design an XPRIZE. Astro Teller on building a moonshot startup. Investing in exponentials. AI and film. The four sessions repeat through the evening so you can get to three of them.

You leave with a working thesis on where AI is actually going, from the people deploying it, and the phone numbers of a few hundred people building it.

See the full schedule, hour by hour
Daytime programming
8:00 AMRegistrationDoors open · arrivals
9:00 AMWelcome & openingPeter Diamandis
9:30 AMBuild with Gemini XPRIZE pitchesHost: Peter Diamandis · five finalists pitch live to the judges
11:30 AMAlex Wissner-Gross · "Solve Everything"Moonshots training · one hour, plus a one-on-one AMA
1:30 PMSalim Ismail · "Organizational Singularity"Moonshots training · one hour
2:30 PMDave Blundin · "Investing in AI"Moonshots training session
3:30 PMCathie Wood · 2026 "Big Ideas" reportWith invited CEOs
5:00 PMFuture Vision XPRIZEHost: Rod Roddenberry · five winning trailers revealed + judging
6:30 PMClosing & evening overviewPeter Diamandis
Evening
7:00 PMReceptionsVIP reception with Peter, the Mates, finalists & faculty · general reception for all
8:00 PMOpen bar, music & networkingWith the Moonshots Mates & faculty
8:00 PMUnconference · four rooms rotateAnousheh Ansari on designing XPRIZEs · Astro Teller on building a Moonshot startup · Investing in Exponentials · AI + Film
10:00 PMCloseThe four sessions repeat across the evening so every attendee can catch three of the four rooms
07 — Two ways in

Two ways in.

1,500 seats, and we’re not adding more. AI Valley readers skip the application: pick a tier, and the seat is yours.

AI Valley readers are pre-approved. No application.
General
General Admission
$1,495
Per person
  • Full day, 8 AM to 10 PM
  • Both prize ceremonies, live
  • All four Moonshots training sessions
  • General reception, open bar and music
  • The evening sessions, all four rooms
  • Attendee directory before the event
VIP
VIP Experience
$5,000
Per person
  • Everything in General Admission, plus:
  • VIP reception with Peter, the Mates and both sets of finalists
  • VIP lunch with Peter Diamandis, the Moonshots Mates and the faculty
  • Reserved premium seating in the main theater
  • The Builders’ Dinner: night-before reception (Sept 24)

Venue and arrival details go out to confirmed attendees two weeks before the event.

Would rather be considered the usual way? Apply here.