Meet the Future of Autonomous Wildfire Response: XPRIZE Wildfire Announces Finalist Teams Advancing in $11M Competition
Meet the Future of Autonomous Wildfire Response: XPRIZE Wildfire Announces Finalist Teams Advancing in $11M Competition |
| [29-January-2026] |
$750,000 Awarded Across Autonomous Teams to Advance their Drone and AI Coordination Solutions OAKLAND, Calif., Jan. 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- XPRIZE, the world's leader in designing and operating large-scale incentive competitions to solve humanity's grand challenges, in partnership with co-title sponsors Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, today announced the five finalist teams advancing in the Autonomous Wildfire Response Track of XPRIZE Wildfire, an $11 million global competition incentivizing the innovation of firefighting technologies. The finalists were announced today at an event hosted at PG&E's headquarters in Oakland.
The announcement comes just after the one-year anniversary of the devastating Los Angeles area wildfires, which claimed more than 30 lives, forced evacuations of over 200,000 people, displaced nearly 100,000 residents, and destroyed more than 16,000 homes and businesses, making it one of the most costly wildfires in U.S. history. With the scale, speed, and complexity of wildfires now exceeding what traditional human-driven systems can handle, there is a growing need for adoption of AI and autonomous technology in wildfire prevention. Competitors in the Autonomous Wildfire Response Track are developing fully autonomous solutions to detect and suppress a high-risk fire in 10 minutes or less over a large, environmentally complex area roughly the size of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose combined while avoiding decoy fires—a challenge that has never been tackled at this scale and scope before. These technologies have the potential to transform how fires are detected, managed, and fought, with a rate 4x faster than current best practices and shortening the time between detection and rapid response, minimizing negative impacts. "Globally, wildfires are becoming more frequent, more intense, more unpredictable, and more destructive," said Andrea Santy, XPRIZE Wildfire Program Director. "The technologies being developed by these finalist teams offer meaningful solutions with the potential to fundamentally change how we detect, respond to, and ultimately prevent catastrophic wildfire events." In late 2025, the XPRIZE Wildfire operations team conducted in-field testing with 13 Autonomous semifinalist teams, each demonstrating the capabilities of their system. These systems integrated AI-driven detection, autonomous drone navigation, real-time sensing, and automated suppression, along with evaluations of scalability and operational readiness. The resulting finalist solutions move beyond concept, showcasing autonomous drones and AI-coordinated systems capable of mapping, assessing, and responding to wildfire threats in real time, even in harsh environments, offering a glimpse into the future of wildfire management. The finalist teams come from diverse backgrounds, ranging from defense organizations and seasoned AI experts to high school students, demonstrating that breakthroughs can emerge from anyone, anywhere. The five Autonomous finalist teams are:
The XPRIZE Wildfire Judging Panel awarded equal portions of a $750,000 prize purse to the five finalist teams for demonstrated technical readiness across core areas: autonomous end-to-end wildfire response systems, smart detection, autonomous navigation and safety, autonomous suppression, and a scalability assessment of their system. Semifinals live trials took place in situ around the world and were captured by testing partner Alaska Center for Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration (ACUASI) in the Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. In the summer of 2026, Autonomous finalist teams will compete in a final testing round in Alaska, where they will be tasked with demonstrating autonomous systems that can detect and fully suppress a high-risk fire in a 1,000 km² test zone within minutes while leaving decoy fires untouched. Space-Based Finalists also Advancing In Track A, teams have one minute to accurately detect all fires across a landscape larger than entire states or countries, and 10 minutes to precisely characterize and report data with the least false positives to decision-makers on the ground. These teams will compete in finals in April in Australia in partnership with the New South Wales Rural Fire Service. PG&E Named Impact Phase Sponsor "PG&E remains unwavering in our stand that catastrophic wildfires shall stop. The breakthrough technologies and innovators driving progress in XPRIZE Wildfire have the potential to transform community protection, strengthen support for first responders, and bring us together in serving our planet," said Sumeet Singh, Pacific Gas and Electric Company Chief Executive Officer and Executive Vice President, Energy Delivery. "PG&E is proud to support advancements in this critical area of technology development and looks forward to the testing and impact phase with finalists across both tracks of the XPRIZE Wildfire competition." PG&E and XPRIZE invite others to join in moving from solution to development. Sponsors and potential pilot project host partners are encouraged to reach out. "Wildfires are escalating in both frequency and intensity, and addressing this challenge requires bold, evidence-driven solutions," said Genny Biggs, program director of the Wildfire Resilience Initiative at the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. "The teams advancing in the XPRIZE Wildfire competition are translating research and innovation into real-world tools that can strengthen resilience for communities and ecosystems alike." At the end of the competition in Q3 2026, a winning team in each track will have the opportunity to receive $3.5 million. A $1 million bonus prize, sponsored by Lockheed Martin, may be awarded to one or more eligible teams participating in the Autonomous Wildfire Response track whose competition entries successfully demonstrate the most accurate, precise, and rapid detection. XPRIZE Wildfire is offered in partnership with Co-Title Sponsors Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and PG&E, Presenting Sponsor Minderoo Foundation, Bonus Prize Sponsor Lockheed Martin, and Supporting Sponsors Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, Costa Navarino, American Family Insurance, Fairfax Financial, the Roddenberry Foundation, and several generous individual sponsors. For more information, please visit www.xprize.org/wildfire. About XPRIZE About PG&E About Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
SOURCE PG&E | ||
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