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Sponsorship Program
Empowering Open-Source AI Builders
Free compute and model hosting for independent researchers, builders, and teams creating the future of open AI
Global Access
From Nairobi to Hanoi to São Paulo—AI should belong to everyone, not just those with unlimited budgets
Real Infrastructure
Enterprise-grade compute without the friction of managing GPUs, clusters, or clouds
Open First
Supporting meaningful open-source work that strengthens the entire AI ecosystem
Our Mission
Across the world, small teams are training new models, extending open weights, and experimenting with architectures that could define the next wave of AI.
What they lack isn't talent or ambition—it's access.
The Featherless Sponsorship Program closes that gap with free compute and model hosting for open-source builders doing meaningful work.
What you get
Compute Access
Use Featherless infrastructure to train, test, or deploy your model
Visibility
Your work featured across our platform, community channels, and open-model partners
Hosted Inference
We host, serve, and maintain your model so it's instantly usable and accessible worldwide
Who it's for
Independent researchers, fine-tuners, and small teams building open-weight models
Teams working on local-language or low-resource AI projects
Creators who already have inference-ready models but need reliable, affordable serving
Builders who believe in open collaboration and want their work to be part of a global ecosystem
How it works
1
Apply
Tell us about your project and compute needs (five minutes)
2
Get Selected
We review based on openness, potential impact, and technical fit
3
Run on Featherless
Receive credits or hosted inference access
4
Share Your Work
Once live, we'll help promote your model across the community
→ We're starting with a pilot cohort of 3–5 projects as we test, learn, and expand.
Why Featherless (and why now)
Open first
Everything we build is designed to strengthen the open-model ecosystem
Reliable by design
The same infrastructure that powers enterprise inference is available to individuals
Global focus
We prioritise builders outside the usual AI centres and support diverse languages and domains
Mission aligned
This program operationalises our core vision—an AI landscape where progress is distributed, not centralised
→ We see this as part of a larger purpose:
to make sure the next chapter of AI isn't written only in Silicon Valley or Shenzhen,
but in every place where curiosity meets computation.
Selection focus
We prioritise projects that:
Are openly licensed (MIT, Apache 2.0, OpenRAIL, etc.)
Serve new or under-represented communities and languages
Can produce visible, practical outcomes within the pilot window
Fit our current technical stack
Apply now
Applications are open for the first pilot cohort.
Selected creators will receive onboarding instructions and compute access within two weeks.