Since its launch in 2023, teams from across the globe have competed in the $11 million XPRIZE Wildfire Competition to transform how we detect and respond to wildfires through technological innovation. Today, XPRIZE announced the awardees during the XPRIZE Wildfire Awardee Ceremony at the New York City Fire Museum.
As wildfires grow in frequency and intensity worldwide, XPRIZE Wildfire has incentivized innovation in firefighting technologies to help end destructive wildfires so humanity and beneficial wildfires can safely coexist. Teams competed across two complementary tracks, Space-Based Wildfire Detection & Intelligence and Autonomous Wildfire Response.
Track A: Space-Based Wildfire Detection & Intelligence
Track A challenged teams to utilize space-based Earth Observation data synthesized with artificial intelligence and machine learning to detect, characterize and report wildfires faster and more accurately across vast landscapes.
XPRIZE awarded $1.05 million across five Track A teams, recognizing meaningful advances in space-based wildfire detection and intelligence. Judges recognized progress in multi-sensor system integration, detection methodology, commercial readiness, operational capabilities, and innovative algorithms. The results also helped identify key technical gaps that must be addressed to enable reliable, real-time wildfire detection from space.
- First Place - System Integration Awardee, $500,000: SIRIUS Wildfire Alliance
SIRIUS Wildfire Alliance demonstrated comprehensive end-to-end and system integration methodology, integrating SAR and optical data to support fire characterization and spread modeling. - Second Place - Methodological Innovation Awardee, $250,000: Team Snuffed
Team Snuffed developed a probabilistic data-fusion framework designed to provide transparent, auditable and uncertainty-aware wildfire detection, with strong firefighter-facing usability. - Special Recognition, Commercial Viability, $100,000: MyRadar
As a commercially mature team, MyRadar utilized upstream satellite acquisition and demonstrated spatial precision. - Special Recognition, Operational Deliverable, $100,000: DeepFire
DeepFire demonstrated an operational fire-spread-alert capability designed to support wildfire detection and intelligence. - Special Recognition, Innovative Algorithm Application, $100,000: Mayday.AI
Mayday.AI applied an algorithm originally developed for volcanic-ash detection to identify wildfire smoke plumes through cloud cover.
Track B: Autonomous Wildfire Response
In June 2026, Autonomous Wildfire Response competitors put their solutions to the test in the Alaskan wilderness. Teams were challenged to autonomously detect and completely suppress a high-risk fire within 10 minutes of ignition across 1,000 km² of challenging terrain, without disturbing nearby decoy fires.
The XPRIZE Wildfire Judging Panel awarded $2.5 million across three Track B Finalist teams, recognizing distinct breakthroughs across the autonomous wildfire response cycle:
- First Place Awardee, $1.2 Million: Anduril Industries
Anduril’s modular Lattice software platform provided a detection-to-suppression integrated pathway for cameras, sensors, and drones. - Second Place Awardee, $800,000: Dryad Networks
Dryad’s Silvanet, a 170-sensor persistent field network, combined with their Silvaguard drones, demonstrated end-to-end autonomy. - Third Place Awardee, $500,000: AURA Foresight
AURA successfully demonstrated autonomous and persistent detection, meeting the critical 10-minute detection gate. - Lockheed Martin Accurate Detection & Intelligence Bonus Prize, $1,000,000: Anduril Industries
Recognized for their rapid and precise multi-sensor detector performance.
What’s Next:
The end of the competition is not the end of the work. XPRIZE Wildfire will move into an Impact Phase focused on translating promising technologies from both tracks into durable, deployable solutions for real-world wildfire management. Through field trials, technology evaluation and knowledge sharing, the goal is to accelerate adoption and integration into operational use, particularly in high-risk wildfire regions.
The awardee announcement marks an important milestone in the fight against destructive wildfires, but the breakthroughs that emerged from the competition are only the beginning. By catalyzing technological innovation and collaboration between innovators and wildfire experts, XPRIZE Wildfire has helped spur the development, adoption and investment needed to strengthen the accuracy of wildfire detection and the speed of response.
The goal now is to carry that momentum forward, helping emerging technologies detect and address wildfires faster, before they become destructive.
XPRIZE Wildfire is offered in partnership with Co-Title Sponsors Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) and Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Presenting Sponsor and Co-Designer of XPRIZE Space-Based Wildfire Detection & Intelligence Track Minderoo Foundation, The $1M Accurate Detection Intelligence Bonus Prize Sponsor Lockheed Martin and Supporting Sponsors Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, Costa Navarino, American Family Insurance, Fairfax Financial, the Roddenberry Foundation, and individual benefactors. PG&E is the lead sponsor of the Impact Phase.