The whole stack is still moving - the models, the systems that train them, the systems that run them in production. None of it has settled yet.

Most AI events optimize for volume. This one optimizes for depth - a room with the size enough that every conversation starts already past the introductions, built around the open questions speakers are still working through, not the ones they've solved.

First Speaker Lineup

Tianyi Zhang - AI Researcher @ Together AI

Harshit Joshi - CS Phd @ Stanford SAIL

Yuexing Hao - Researcher @ Microsoft & Postdoc @ MIT & Founder of MatrAIx AI

Xiaomin Li - Senior Research Scientist @ Microsoft

Biwei Huang - Founder @ Aether AI & Assistant Professor @ UC San Diego

Yash More - Member of Technical Staff @ Cohere

Dexter Horthy - Founder @HumanLayer (YCF24)

More speakers confirming!

What's Being Debated Across the Stack

Compute, training infrastructure

Inference, agent infrastructure

Reliability, evals, & recursive self improvements

Data, security, & enterprise deployment

Frontier research shaping what comes next

Why join us:

Three keynote-length talks + Eight lightning talks more move fast across two tracks: AI Data / Infra + Researcher Topics

Every talk ends with something unresolved. Those open questions carry straight into the salon & the demo floor

100 people, application-only: founders, frontier researchers, enterprise infrastructure leaders, & infra-focused investors

An hour & a half on the demo floor - built for the conversations that start after the talks end

Format:

Panel Discussion - The future if AI Infra, Agent token-economics & models

Keynote Block - 3 companies, extended time to go deep

Lightning Talks I - AI Infra & Data (4 companies)

Lightning Talks II - Research Topics (4 companies)

Technical Salon - researchers, founders, enterprise leaders & investors on what's structurally becoming the bottleneck

Demo Floor - booths, food & drinks, direct conversations

Schedule:

2:00 PM - Doors open, coffee & booth preview

3:00 PM - Opening

3:10 PM - Technical panel

3:40 PM - Keynote block

4:20 PM - Lightning Talks I: AI Infrastructure & Data

4:45 PM - Lightning Talks II: Research

5:10 PM - Technical salon

5:45-7:00 PM - Demo floor, food & drinks

Who should apply:

Founders & CTOs building infrastructure, researchers from frontier labs, enterprise leaders deploying AI at scale, & investors focused on infrastructure. This isn't for general AI enthusiasts - it's for people building or deciding at the infrastructure layer.

Researchers / Technical Builders -= Frontier lab researchers, PhDs, postdocs, & engineers working on AI systems, distributed training, inference, & agent infrastructure.

Strategic Partners - Sponsors Infrastructure providers, developer platforms, compute & cloud partners, & ecosystem partners looking to connect with a curated pipeline of AI infrastructure founders.

Founders Startup Teams - AI infrastructure, agent systems, inference & serving, training infrastructure, data & security, & frontier AI application startups.

Investors / VCs - Pre-seed to Series B infrastructure investors, technical VCs, & angels looking for early access to high-quality AI infrastructure companies.

100 spots. Applications reviewed on a rolling basis.

Join as Speakers

11 spots - 3 keynote, 8 lightning talk, across AI infrastructure, data, & frontier research. If you're building or researching at the infrastructure layer & want to present, reach out to the OpenStages team at partnership@openstagesai.com.

Join as Strategic Partners

Community Partner Enterprise Startups Investors

Strategic partners get direct access to a curated pipeline of AI infrastructure founders, the researchers & technical builders shaping the space, & structured follow-up after the event. Reach out to the OpenStages team at partnership@openstagesai.com.

Why AI Infra Signal

AI infrastructure is moving from research prototypes into production systems - real deployments, real reliability constraints, real scale problems. This gathering brings together the founders, researchers, investors, & strategic partners actively shaping that transition: from lab benchmark to production system, from experimental architecture to infrastructure enterprises depend on.

About the host:

OpenStages is a Bay Area team that plans & hosts curated events for founders & builders: hackathons, salons, & closed-door sessions across AI & tech. LinkedIn openstagesai.com