Event Registration | Before 2026 Arrives: A "Deep" Dive into the Next Step for AI Hardware in Shenzhen

Glasses, headphones, robots, wearables... As AI breaks out from behind the screen, hardware is becoming the most fertile ground for AI to take root. And in this wave, more and more Gen Z founders are riding the crest.

They're no longer satisfied with "just making a device." Increasingly, they're asking: How do you turn prompt thinking into mass-producible product logic? How do you find real differentiation at the intersection of engineering, experience, and intelligence? How do you get from a demo to a product that global users will actually pay for?

Yet gaps remain between inspiration, methodology, and resources. At this stage where AI and hardware are converging rapidly, Gen Z hardware founders are grappling with concrete challenges — choosing direction, building supply chains, taking brands global, and connecting with the right resources.

This October, we launched Y Transformers, a dedicated investment program for post-'98 AI-native founders, aiming to bridge more of their creative ideas to reality through real capital and comprehensive support. This Saturday, December 20, the Y Transformers offline event comes to Shenzhen — a hub of hardware innovation. We're partnering with Shenzhen Model Camp AI Ecosystem Community, alongside deeply experienced industry partners including AING, SZ RoboX, and HKAI LAB, to build a stage for hardware innovators turning prompts into products — connecting them with experience, resources, and new possibilities.

➤ Who we'll bring together:

• Young founders working on student startups, lab spinouts, or solo hardware projects
• Engineers from leading hardware companies
• Seasoned operators who've successfully navigated global expansion, brand-building, and crowdfunding
• And investors and resource partners willing to back founders at the earliest stages

Through in-depth talks from practitioners, showcases of Gen Z hardware innovations, and open, unconstrained open-mic sessions, we'll tackle real questions across dimensions including:

• How is AI reshaping consumer electronics and hardware categories?
• How can young hardware founders build product sense and engineering judgment from 0 to 1?
• Are new success patterns emerging between global expansion, branding, and crowdfunding hits?
• For Gen Z, how do you cross the hardest first step of hardware entrepreneurship?

If you're working to turn a hardware project from prompt into product, or you've been deeply involved in defining, developing, or mass-producing hardware products — or if you're a practitioner in manufacturing, design, branding, crowdfunding, or anywhere else in the hardware startup ecosystem — you're welcome to apply and join us in person :)

To ensure quality of exchange, this event is limited to 50 seats.

Application deadline: 12:00 PM, December 19

➤ About our co-organizers & partners

Shenzhen Model Camp AI Ecosystem Community is Nanshan District's first vertical large-model ecosystem community in the Greater Bay Area, guided by a core strategy of "supplying 100,000 square meters of industrial space, incubating 100 innovative entities, spawning 1,000 intelligent applications, and driving trillions in economic growth." It provides AI enterprises with professional infrastructure and essential resources, promotes innovative model applications, and has initially formed four segments: embodied intelligence, model foundations, AI+ hardware, and AI+ applications.

AING is a full-service platform focused on AI hardware startups. Centered on consumer AI products, it empowers companies through brand content marketing, connects upstream and downstream industry ecosystems, and advances alongside industry players — committed to finding certain trends and directions amid the tech wave.

SZ RoboX is a Shenzhen-based open community for AI hardware and robotics, dedicated to showcasing the city's robotics supply chain and products to the world. "We hope to attract more global talent to exchange here, and to drive Shenzhen's tech products and content onto the world stage."

HKAI LAB is Hong Kong's first incubator focused on artificial intelligence, long connecting academia, research capabilities, and entrepreneurs to drive AI R&D, technology transfer, and industrial application. Since its founding in 2018, it has run 12 cohorts of its Hong Kong Accelerator Program, continuously cultivating AI and data talent through workshops, seminars, and cross-sector collaboration to advance the regional AI ecosystem.