---
title: "Verda Compute Track – Junction 2026"
description: "From electron to token, it takes decades of progress to run AI. Add scale, efficiency, and sustainability, and AI becomes a monumental achievement."
url: https://junction2026.com/challenges/verda-verda-compute-track
---

> For the index of all pages on this site, see [llms.txt](https://junction2026.com/llms.txt).

# Verda Compute Track

Junction 2026 · Tech challenges

by Verda

## The Challenge

#### INTRODUCTION

From electron to token, it takes decades of progress to run AI. Add scale, efficiency, and sustainability, and AI becomes a monumental achievement.

Verda brings everything together.

We make compute, storage, and networking work in unison to squeeze peak performance, hosted in European data centers and utilizing 100% renewable energy. We develop services for you to utilize computational power most efficiently, no matter your use case.

The end result is a cloud platform trusted by the world's leading AI labs and frontier researchers. The best thing is you get to use the same next-gen compute for free at Junction 2026.

#### BOUNTY: BEST USE OF VERDA

Pick any challenge at Junction and use Verda products to build something you couldn't build on a laptop. Then show us how far it goes.

- **Teach a humanoid to move**. Train locomotion or manipulation policies for Aalto's Unitree G1 in simulation, at scale, before your shot at the real robot.
- **Turn demonstrations into a brain**. Train imitation-learning or VLA policies from robot-arm demos in the Ignite × Intel challenge, or from Rokoko motion-capture teleoperation data.
- **Make an agent stronger than it was on Friday.** Run thousands of rollouts in your AfterQuery RL environment and fine-tune a smaller model on the experience.
- **Read the whole internet's encyclopedia.** Embed MariaDB's full Wikipedia dataset with batch jobs and serve a RAG assistant on top.
- **Keep sensitive data in Europe.** Run open-weight models for a banking coach or a recruitment tool on infrastructure you control, instead of sending data to someone else's API.

**Or surprise us.** Anything that needs serious compute counts. (Anything except crypto mining. We've seen it, and it gets you banned.)

**What we're looking for**

- An ambitious idea where compute is what makes it possible
- The right Verda product for the job, and a clear reason why you chose it
- Your path from first idea to working prototype
- Bonus points: show how your solution would scale from a hackathon demo to real users

**Minimum Requirements**

- Document your process
- Share a link to a summary → Post it in our Discord channel

**The Technology**

- Inference API for serving out-of-the-box open-weight models within your application.
- GPU instances or Instant clusters for training or fine-tuning tasks.
- CPU instances for hosting agentic applications.
- Auto-scaling containers for hosting models where scale and costs matter.
- Batch jobs for long-running tasks in the background.

**Prizes and Judging**

The winning team gets 10,000 USD in cloud credits and Verda hoodies. Runner-up teams in second and third places get 2,500 USD in cloud credits.

## Resources

#### What we'll bring

- **Inference API:** serve open-weight models in your app with zero setup
- **GPU instances and Instant Clusters:** for training and fine-tuning when one GPU isn't enough
- **CPU instances:** to host your agents and backends
- **Auto-scaling containers:** deploy models where scale and cost matter
- **Batch jobs:** run long jobs in the background while you sleep (or don't)
- **NVIDIA Nemotron endpoint:** hosted by Verda together with NVIDIA
- **Free credits for every team:** scan the QR code on your table or go to [verda.com/blog/junction-2026](https://verda.com/blog/junction-2026)

**Mentors on-site during the entire weekend**, meet us on the third floor at Booth 6! Start with the **"Getting started with Verda"** workshop on Friday at 20:30, right after the opening ceremony: sign-up, credits, every product, and how to use them.

Ambition: how much did compute let you do that you otherwise couldn't? Fit: did you pick the right Verda services and use them well? Working prototype: does it run, and is the process documented? Path to scale: is there a credible way from demo to real users?

## Challenge partner

Verda

Tech challenges

## Company Info: Verda

Website: <http://verda.com/>

## Judging Criteria

- Ambition — (25%)

  How much did compute let you do that you otherwise couldn't?

- Fit — (25%)

  Did you pick the right Verda services and use them well?

- Working prototype — (25%)

  Does it run, and is the process documented?

- Path To Scale — (25%)

  Is there a credible way from demo to real users?

## Prizes

- 1st Place

  $10,000 in Verda cloud credits + Verda hoodies

- 2nd Place

  $2,500 in cloud credits

- 3rd Place

  $2,500 in cloud credits