The fine print.

MAIC

The Malaysia AI Conference & Challenge.

Organisers

Solara Global Media Sdn. Bhd. and Solarvest Holdings Berhad, jointly.

Participant / Team

Any individual or group of up to five (5) members submitting an application.

Team Leader

The team member designated to submit and manage the application on behalf of the team.

Malaysian Citizen Requirement

Every team must include at least one Malaysian citizen (MyKad holder). Permanent Residents and international students do not satisfy this requirement.

Artifact

A working, judge-accessible deliverable as defined under each Track Axis.

Participation is open to applicants of any nationality, age or professional status. There is no academic, employment or residency requirement.

Startup teams may apply provided the startup was incorporated within the past five (5) years as of the application submission date.

The Organisers may verify eligibility at any time. A startup team found to be older than five (5) years at the time of application, or to have provided inaccurate eligibility information, may be disqualified, including during the Preliminary Round.

Mandatory: every team must include at least one (1) Malaysian citizen (MyKad holder), designated by full legal name at the time of application. Permanent Residents and international students do not satisfy this requirement. Malaysian citizens living or working abroad are eligible. This person is the team's contact of record for prize disbursement and equity terms.

Employees and immediate family members of Organisers and judges are not eligible to participate.

Teams may consist of one (1) to five (5) members. Solo applicants are permitted.

An individual may be listed on only one (1) team. Cross-team participation will result in disqualification of all affected teams.

Team member additions, removals or substitutions are permitted only between stages and only with prior written approval from the Organisers. Mid-stage changes are not permitted under any circumstance.

Applications open 11 June 2026 (at the Official Launch Event) and close 31 August 2026 at 23:59 (MYT). No extensions will be granted save at the Organisers' sole written discretion.

Entry is limited to 100 teams on a strict first-come, first-served basis. The Organisers reserve the right to close registration early once this limit is reached.

The competition runs in four stages: Application → Online Qualifier → University Semi-Final → Grand Final. Advancement at each stage is determined solely by judging outcomes.

Participation is governed by a two-tier agreement. Basic participation terms are accepted at registration; teams advancing to the Semi-Final must additionally execute a stage-two agreement covering confidentiality, intellectual property, data-sharing and investment-related terms.

The registration fee — RM 150 (early bird, until 15 July 2026), RM 250 (fair early bird, 16 July – 8 August 2026), or RM 500 (standard, from 9 August 2026) — is payable once per team and is non-refundable, save as expressly provided in this clause.

Where a team is disqualified pursuant to Clause 13 (Disqualification), any registration fee paid by that team is forfeited in full and no refund is payable.

If the Organisers cancel or postpone the Event, each participant is entitled to a full refund of the registration fee paid. The applicable refund processing timeframe will be published separately.

Each team must submit, by the published deadline, the materials defined on the Apply page. The pitch deck, project summary and AI disclosure statement are mandatory at application; the demo video, repo/demo link, technical architecture document and member profiles are recommended and may be added or updated from the team dashboard until the relevant judging window.

The repo/demo link must be publicly accessible during the judging window for the relevant stage. Private repositories, gated demos or content behind authentication walls will be treated as a non-submission.

Repositories submitted as artifacts must show at least three (3) commits over a minimum of two (2) calendar days, dated prior to the submission deadline.

Each team must select one (1) Industry (T1 — T6) at submission. The selection is locked at submission and cannot be changed at any subsequent stage.

Submissions that materially diverge from the declared Industry at any stage may be disqualified at the Organisers' discretion.

Preliminary submissions are reviewed by professionals across relevant industries using the published stage rubric. Each criterion is scored on a 1 – 10 scale and weighted to a 100-point total.

Submissions are assessed across five criteria — Technical Feasibility (25%), Commercial Viability (25%), Industry Relevance (20%), Scalability (15%) and ESG / National Impact (15%).

Judging decisions are final and not subject to appeal, except in cases of demonstrable procedural error raised in writing within 72 hours of result publication.

The MAIC Nexus Challenge awards a total prize pool of RM 388,000 in cash and equity investment across all award categories. The cash and equity allocation for each category is confirmed and published prior to Finals.

Equity investment is made on terms set out in a separate investment agreement (see the incorporation requirement below). Trophies, certificates and merit gifts are provided to the relevant award holders as published.

Cash prizes are disbursed to the designated Malaysian citizen team member's verified bank account on behalf of the team, within thirty (30) calendar days of the Grand Final and subject to completion of the incorporation requirement below. Internal distribution among team members is the team's responsibility.

Any cash award and equity investment for the top three (3) placed teams (Champion, 1st Runner-up, 2nd Runner-up) are conditional on the team incorporating a Malaysian private limited company (Sdn. Bhd.) with at least one (1) Malaysian director. Incorporation is a condition precedent to receiving any cash award or investment.

If a qualifying team is not incorporated at the time of award, it must register a Malaysian Sdn. Bhd. within 90 calendar days of award notification and complete standard onboarding for any equity investment within a further 60 days.

Equity terms (instrument, valuation, governance) will be set out in a separate investment agreement consistent with prevailing market terms for seed-stage capital in Malaysia. Failure to complete equity onboarding within the stated window forfeits the equity component only; it does not affect the cash award.

Winning teams that elect to accept investment may be subject to time-limited co-investment rights — including a right of first offer and a right of first refusal — in favour of the Organisers and their appointed investment entities.

These rights operate as a benchmark-and-matching mechanism only. They do not oblige any team to accept investment, and a team remains free to decline investment or to seek funding from any source. The full terms are set out in the stage-two participation agreement executed on entry to the Semi-Final.

All intellectual property in submitted artifacts and materials remains with the team. The Organisers acquire no ownership rights in the artifact or underlying IP.

By participating, teams grant Organisers a non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide licence to use submitted materials (pitch deck, summary, demo video, screenshots) for marketing, editorial and convening purposes related to MAIC, with attribution where reasonable.

Organisers reserve the right to disqualify any team for, including but not limited to:

• Material misrepresentation in the application or Anchor designation
• Plagiarism, fraudulent artifacts or commits backdated to feign development
• Cross-team participation by any individual
• Track misrepresentation at any stage
• Failure to honour judging access requirements for the artifact
• Conduct in breach of event code of conduct at any in-person stage

Personal data submitted via the MAIC Nexus portal is processed in accordance with Malaysia's Personal Data Protection Act 2010 (PDPA) and the MAIC Privacy Notice. Data is shared with the Organisers, judges and partner organisations strictly for competition administration and prize disbursement.

Participant data is retained for 24 months following the competition; data of finalists is retained for 36 months for follow-up purposes. Thereafter it is deleted or anonymised.

You may withdraw consent to the processing of your personal data at any time by writing to admin@maicnexus.com. Requests are resolved within fourteen (14) days, subject to any data the Organisers are required to retain by law.

Organisers may amend these Terms & Conditions prior to the close of applications. Material amendments will be published on this page and notified to applicants by email. Continued participation after notification constitutes acceptance.

These Terms are governed by the laws of Malaysia. Any dispute arising from or relating to MAIC or these Terms shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.