MassRobotics, AWS, and NVIDIA Announce 2026 Physical AI Fellowship

Startups interested in using AI to improve their businesses can apply to get some help from top industry experts. Amazon Web Services (AWS), MassRobotics, and NVIDIA Inception have created a fellowship program for learning and optimizing physical AI solutions.

To participate, interested companies go through an application process and, if selected, will receive customized access from experts at all three organizations. They will also receive $200,000 in AWS cloud and compute credits.

This is the second annual fellowship. Tom Eliaz, co-founder of Bedrock Robotics, said of the fellowship, “we partnered with specialists from AWS and NVIDIA who brought decades of ML and data science experience to our toughest challenges.”

Physical AI fellows work through tooling challenges with their newly acquired skillsets. Image used courtesy of MassRobotics

What Is Physical AI?

The Physical AI Fellowship is designed around the use and optimization of physical AI. Physical AI is defined as the integration of hardware with AI/ML routines. Cameras, robots, AMRs, and many other devices—physical objects—rely heavily on the development of physics routines that allow them to work in the real world. The development of these models, training these machines, and other such tasks all fall under the umbrella of “physical AI.”

Physical AI Fellowship

The Physical AI Fellowship is an eight-week-long virtual training program that helps robotics and automation startups meet the challenges of scaling up intelligently. The fellowship is designed to put engineers at startups in contact with other industry professionals in a mentee-mentorship role.

The second cohort of the Physical AI Fellowship will have the opportunity to showcase its startups at prominent industry events. Image used courtesy of MassRobotics

For the duration of the fellowship, fellows will have weekly meetings with AWS Generative AI Innovation Center engineers and scientists and have the opportunity to participate in industry events, including webinars, “meet and greets” with AWS Physical AI experts, and reserved space at the Robotics Summit and Expo. These opportunities will serve as major networking and knowledge exchange opportunities.

Outside of networking, fellows also receive up to $200,000 in AWS cloud and compute credits. These credits, while having no direct cash value, can be used in the Amazon ecosystem. They can be used to purchase S3 storage space, database use, or for AI/ML tools, like Amazon Bedrock and Amazon SageMaker, that can be used to train models.

Physical AI Fellowship applications are now open through January 30, 2026. Image used courtesy of MassRobotics

Fellowship Timeline

Applications are available online, as of December 1, 2025, and will remain open until January 30, 2026. Once the application window closes, each application will be carefully reviewed, and the winners will be notified by March 20, 2026.

After the winners have been selected, their fellowship will begin on April 6, 2026. At that point, fellows will begin to experience all of the benefits of this program, including access to industry experts and knowledge bases. At the end of May, the fellows will be invited to attend the Robotics Summit and Expo in Boston. The program wraps up and concludes during the first week of June.

Application Process

Fellowship applications are open and available through MassRobotics. The application should take under half an hour, but should be completed by a knowledgeable member of the technical staff, due to the nature of the in-depth questions.