The AI HackXelerator was created to unite two often separated worlds: creatives and AI developers. Our goal was to build a bridge between them and show how AI can be used as a tool to support, not replace, human creativity. We wanted to create an environment where artists, designers, and innovators could collaborate with technical experts and explore new ways to push their creative boundaries with AI.

About AI HackXelerator

To make this vision a reality, Vultr partnered with KXSB in London – a community and innovation space known for connecting creative industries with emerging technology. We designed a hybrid 20-day event where people could meet, form teams, and collaborate online and in person.

We wanted the HackXelerator to be accessible and flexible for everyone, but we also felt it was important to add a personal touch. That’s why, alongside the online program, we organized meetups in London, Paris, and Berlin – giving participants a chance to connect face-to-face with the people they were working with, share ideas, and build lasting relationships.

Vultr’s media and entertainment support for the AI HackXelerator

Vultr brought extensive experience supporting the media and entertainment industry to the AI HackXelerator. Our high-performance compute, GPU-accelerated instances, and flexible deployment options are already used by creative businesses worldwide to power everything from virtual production and real-time rendering to data-driven advertising and immersive gaming. 

For the HackXelerator, we extended this capability to participants, giving them access to the tools they need to prototype, build, and scale AI-powered creative projects quickly and easily.  This included: 

• Access to Vultr’s complete cloud services – from container orchestration and managed Kubernetes to database management, storage, and networking.
• Managed Apache Kafka® for real-time data streaming and event-driven workflows.
• Infrastructure optimized for native AI deployments, including flexible compute and scalable storage.
• Hands-on experience with AMD Instinct™ MI325X GPUs – enabling participants to explore high-performance AI training and inference on Vultr’s AMD hardware.

By providing the technical foundation, we helped teams focus on experimentation, iteration, and creativity, without the typical barriers to accessing enterprise-grade AI infrastructure.

Creative AI needs a village

To bring the AI HackXelerator to life, we were joined by a robust lineup of technology partners shaping the future of creative AI. Each was key in enabling participants to explore cutting-edge tools and techniques for building next-gen experiences.

• AMD provided access to AMD Instinct™ MI325X GPUs, enabling high-performance AI training and inference for creative projects.
• Hugging Face enabled quick integration of pre-trained models from their open-source AI library.
• KXSB, a London-based non-profit, supported the intersection of creativity and emerging tech.
• Luma.ai gave teams tools to create 3D content using AI – ideal for immersive and visual storytelling.
• Mistral AI brought fast, efficient open-weight language models for experimentation with LLMs.
• Pinecone offered vector search capabilities to support memory and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG).
• Twelve Labs added video understanding capabilities for AI projects with rich media content.

London - Paris - Berlin #LPB25 

Alongside the online HackXelerator, we hosted in-person events in London (April 5), Paris (April 25), and Berlin (today!) – where we’re wrapping things up with an after-party to celebrate all the hard work. We’re incredibly grateful to everyone who participated: over 160 people registered, forming 30 teams, with 20 projects submitted on time.

Six winning teams were selected from those submissions – one standout project in each category: Fashion, Film, Gaming, Imaging, Multi-modal, and Music. Starting next week, we’ll launch a blog series to showcase each winner and their AI-powered project. We can’t wait to share their work with you.

Vultr x AI: Just getting started

At Vultr, we constantly use AI-native tools to support builders and creatives. We’ve just onboarded InvokeAI to our Marketplace, making it even easier to experiment with cutting-edge generative tools. The energy and innovation we saw during the AI HackXelerator were just the beginning – and we’re already looking forward to the next one. Stay tuned.