Singapore / Brussels - Bijan Burnard, the founder and chief executive of D-AI, has announced a new international effort to support and accelerate young innovators, technical builders, and early-stage startup founders around the world. The initiative is designed to expand the startup ecosystem developing hardware and software atop D-AI’s technology platforms, while also strengthening global access to compute resources and advanced training.
At the center of this effort is the D-AI Startup Accelerator Grant Program, a funding and mentorship track created specifically for early-stage founders who are building foundational technologies and applied AI products. Burnard emphasized that the future of artificial intelligence will not be shaped solely by corporations and institutions, but by young builders who are able to unlock new ways of thinking and new technological models when given the resources to experiment.
“We are moving into a period where access to compute is the defining threshold between merely having an idea and being able to build something meaningful,” Burnard said. “Our responsibility is to lower that barrier for young innovators across every continent. Talent is everywhere — opportunity must be too.”
To establish momentum and spark global collaboration, D-AI will host two major hackathons in 2026. The first, a global hackathon held in Singapore in Q1 2026, will bring together young engineers, researchers, and product creators to work directly on live D-AI compute systems. The second, taking place in Europe in Q2 2026, will serve as a regional innovation forum and will focus on collaborative development and open public-benefit research. Both events are structured around offering real access to D-AI hardware, not simulated or staged development environments, allowing participants to build deployable, scalable models and applications.
In addition to grants and hackathons, D-AI will provide qualifying founders with GPU compute credits and advanced training from D-AI’s engineering teams. This support is intended to bridge the global gap in high-performance computing access, which has become one of the most significant constraints in AI development worldwide. The training programs will guide founders in efficient model design, secure deployment practices, energy-aware compute strategy, and ethical alignment in applied AI systems.
The broader impact of this initiative extends beyond individual startups. As more companies, research groups, and engineering communities choose to build on D-AI platforms, the reach and influence of the D-AI ecosystem expands in parallel. Each founder that develops a product, protocol, or hardware system atop D-AI contributes to a growing global network of interoperable and aligned innovation.
This initiative reflects Burnard’s long-standing position that the future of artificial intelligence must be shared, transparent, and globally participatory. By giving young founders direct access
to compute, resources, guidance, and community, D-AI aims to ensure that the next generation of groundbreaking technology is shaped not by gatekeeping, scarcity, or geopolitical privilege, but by creativity, talent, and purposeful ambition.
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