June 2, 2026

Top Scholarships for Artificial Intelligence Majors in 2026

A university student at a desk surrounded by glowing screens displaying neural network diagrams and scholarship application forms

The number of universities offering standalone AI degree programs doubled between 2020 and 2024. So did the competition for researchers who graduate from them. The result: scholarship money for AI students has never been larger — or more varied. But most of it is hidden behind nomination processes, narrow eligibility windows, and application timelines that start six months before most students open a browser.

What the 2026 Scholarship Landscape Actually Looks Like

AI funding now splits cleanly into three tiers. Tech company fellowships from Google, Meta, NVIDIA, and Microsoft target PhD candidates and can run to six figures per year. Undergraduate awards from Amazon and AWS fund students earlier in the pipeline. A third tier of diversity grants, professional organization awards, and international fellowships covers students who don't fit neatly into the first two buckets.

The mix shifted meaningfully after 2023. Specialized scholarships for AI studies have grown by roughly 25% since 2024, and the dollar amounts at the top end have climbed with them. Google's PhD Fellowship now reaches $85,000 annually for US and Canadian students. NVIDIA's Graduate Fellowship hit $60,000. Meta's program combines a $42,000 annual living stipend with full tuition coverage on top.

One thing that hasn't changed: these programs are competitive in ways that require real preparation. Most tech fellowships don't accept direct applications. Your university nominates you. That detail shifts the strategy entirely — you need to build relationships with faculty who know the programs months before any deadline appears.

The students who win multiple AI scholarships in the same year typically started building their application list in the spring of their second year, not the semester applications opened.

The PhD Fellowship Tier: $42K to $85K Per Year

For doctoral students, the four programs below represent the highest-value funding in the field. They also come with something money can't buy — direct research relationships with industry labs that frequently lead to full-time roles.

Fellowship	Annual Value (US)	Duration	Application Route
Google PhD Fellowship	$85,000	Up to 2 years	University nominates
NVIDIA Graduate Fellowship	Up to $60,000	1 academic year	Direct application
Meta PhD Fellowship	$42,000 stipend + full tuition	Up to 2 years	Direct application
Microsoft Research Fellowship	$17,000–$47,000 (region-based)	1 year	Direct application

Google's fellowship is the most financially valuable for students in the US and Canada, covering tuition, fees, living expenses, and personal equipment. The 2026 deadline was April 30. The critical detail: in most regions, Google requires your university to nominate you rather than accepting direct submissions. That means building faculty relationships early isn't optional — it's the whole game.

Meta's fellowship stands out for what it bundles beyond the stipend: an invitation to the annual Fellowship Summit, conference travel support up to $5,000, and ongoing access to Meta's research teams. The $42,000 living allowance is paid on top of full tuition coverage, not instead of it. Recipients routinely co-publish with Meta researchers during their fellowship year, which has real long-term career value.

The Microsoft Research Fellowship covers a wider geographic range than most, with region-adjusted amounts from $17,000 in parts of Asia and Africa to $47,000 in North America. Payments for 2026 were distributed in March and April. If you missed this cycle's December 2025 deadline, put fall 2026 on your calendar now.

NVIDIA's Fellowship: Sixty Thousand Dollars and a Summer in the Lab

NVIDIA's Graduate Fellowship Program has been running for 25 years — practically prehistoric by AI funding standards — and it has an unusual feature that the dollar figure alone doesn't capture. The $60,000 grant comes paired with a mandatory summer internship at one of NVIDIA's research offices before the fellowship year begins.

NVIDIA has internship locations across the US, Canada, Germany, Sweden, Finland, Switzerland, Israel, and Taiwan. For most PhD students, the internship ends up being the more durable benefit. Work completed there feeds directly into dissertations, and the professional network built during those months often outlasts the fellowship year itself.

The 2026-2027 cohort included PhD candidates from Stanford, UC Berkeley, and MIT. Research topics ranged across physical AI, 4D world modeling, neural rendering, and AI security. The program's funded research areas — autonomous systems, deep learning, robotics, computer graphics, programming systems — map almost exactly to where the industry is spending right now.

If your dissertation touches any of those areas, this fellowship should sit near the top of your list. Applications are open worldwide, not just to US students.

Undergraduate Scholarships Worth Pursuing Before the PhD

Most marquee AI funding targets doctoral programs. Two programs do serious work at the undergraduate level, and both are backed by organizations large enough to reliably disburse the money.

The Amazon Future Engineer Scholarship offers up to $40,000 total ($10,000 per year, renewable for four years) toward a computer science undergraduate degree. Alongside the money comes a paid internship embedded on an Amazon engineering team — interns work on real projects, often touching AWS, logistics platforms, or retail systems. The program was built specifically for underrepresented students from lower-income families. The 2026 application window closed January 22 at 3:00 PM CT (note that for next year).

The AWS AI & ML Scholars Program works differently. Applications opened March 24, 2026. Top performers on an initial online assessment, specifically the top 4,500 learners ranked by score, advance to a fully funded Udacity Nanodegree scholarship in machine learning. It's faster and more accessible than the Amazon fellowship, and better suited to students focused on applied ML careers rather than research paths.

Here's a direct take: if you're an undergrad aiming at a research career and eventually a PhD, invest the time in Amazon's application. If you want to work in industry AI quickly and need a credential that signals practical skill, the AWS program gets you there faster.

Diversity-Focused Funding That Has Real Budgets

Many "diversity in AI" programs are well-intentioned but thinly funded. A few have genuine scale.

The Society of Women Engineers distributed over $1.5 million through 330+ individual scholarships in 2023. That's a meaningful portfolio — SWE awards range from small one-time grants to multi-year support, and the breadth means there are options at multiple stages of education. Enrollment in an ABET-accredited engineering program is a firm requirement, so check that before investing hours in the application.

Intel's AI for Youth Scholarship puts nearly $2 million annually toward underrepresented groups including African American, Latinx, Native American, women, and veteran students. If you belong to one of those categories and attend an institution with an Intel academic partnership, this program is worth pursuing before the more competitive tech fellowships.

The AnitaB.org Systers Pass It On Awards target women in technology globally, with a specific emphasis on technical leadership rather than enrollment numbers. The funding is smaller than SWE's, but the network access carries weight.

One mistake students make repeatedly: they apply for diversity scholarships as a fallback after prestige-program rejections. These timelines often overlap. Apply in parallel, not sequentially, because the applications share almost nothing in common.

International AI Scholarships Most US Students Miss

Erasmus Mundus AI Scholarships are fully funded: tuition, travel expenses, and a monthly living stipend. The program lets you study at two or more European universities within the same degree, which builds an international professional network that single-institution programs simply can't replicate. Applications typically open in October and close in January. If you're open to two years in Europe, this deserves serious attention.

The Fulbright Foreign Student Program runs in the opposite direction — it brings international students to US institutions, including MIT, Stanford, and Carnegie Mellon, with full support covering tuition, airfare, living expenses, and health insurance. If you're an international student targeting US AI programs, the Fulbright timeline should be your first planning constraint.

DAAD Scholarships from Germany offer €850 to €1,200+ per month for graduate study, with strong AI research programs at TU Munich and Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. Less globally competitive than the Fulbright in most regions, and worth a look for students specifically interested in European industry connections.

Japan's MEXT Scholarship (¥143,000 per month, plus full tuition and round-trip airfare) is worth highlighting for students drawn to robotics and human-computer interaction research. Several Japanese universities run genuinely world-class research groups in those areas, and MEXT-funded students graduate with a rare combination of technical depth and cross-cultural experience.

Professional Organization Awards: Smaller Amounts, Easier Access

Not every AI scholarship requires cutting-edge research credentials.

Richard E. Merwin Scholarship (IEEE Computer Society): Up to $1,000 per individual from a $40,000 annual pool. Awarded to active IEEE CS student volunteers. The path to winning runs through involvement, not a research portfolio.
Upsilon Pi Epsilon Scholarship: For computing students who have made contributions to the field; requires IEEE membership.
AAAI Student Scholarships: Cover conference registration and travel for students attending the annual AAAI conference. Less money, but attending as a funded student puts you in the same rooms as the researchers whose papers you've read.

These awards rarely get the attention that six-figure fellowships do. But for early-stage students building credentials and networks, they offer something the big programs don't: a realistic shot without a completed dissertation.

How to Build a Scholarship Strategy That Works

Don't treat AI scholarships like a job board. Scattershot applications dilute your effort and produce generic materials.

Build a tiered list instead:

Reach: Google PhD Fellowship, Meta PhD Fellowship — highly competitive, nomination-gated, or requiring substantial published research
Match: NVIDIA Graduate Fellowship, Microsoft Research Fellowship, SWE scholarships — strong applications have a real chance
Base: AWS AI & ML Scholars, Intel AI for Youth, AAAI Student Scholarships — accessible and worth the time

For nomination-gated programs, identify two or three faculty members who regularly submit nominations and make your interest explicit at the start of the academic year — not in October when deadlines loom.

For direct applications, the research statement matters more than the GPA. Reviewers want a well-defined problem, evidence you understand the adjacent work, and a realistic claim about what you'll contribute. Vague statements about "advancing AI for humanity" don't move anyone. Specific claims backed by preliminary results do.

Start in spring of your second year. That's early enough to identify gaps in your application and do something about them before fall deadlines hit.

Bottom Line

PhD students: The Google ($85K/year), NVIDIA ($60K), and Meta ($42K stipend + tuition) fellowships are the highest-value targets. Start with faculty relationships for Google, direct applications for NVIDIA and Meta.
Undergraduates: Amazon Future Engineer (up to $40,000 total, deadline January 22 each year) and AWS AI & ML Scholars (merit-based, opens March each year) are your primary options. Apply to both.
Underrepresented students: Apply to SWE and Intel AI for Youth in parallel with — not after — your other applications. The overlap in timelines is real.
International students: Erasmus Mundus and Fulbright run on different timelines than US programs; research them separately and early.
Everyone: Build a tiered list, start a full academic year before you need the money, and write research statements around specific problems, not broad ambitions.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can undergraduates apply for the Google or Meta PhD Fellowships?

No. Both programs require enrollment in a PhD program. The Google PhD Fellowship also requires university nomination in most regions, and Meta's fellowship is specifically for doctoral candidates. Undergraduates should focus on Amazon Future Engineer and AWS AI & ML Scholars instead, then revisit these programs after enrolling in a doctoral program.

Do you need to be a US citizen to apply for these AI scholarships?

Most of the major tech fellowships, including NVIDIA, Google (in many regions), Meta, and Microsoft, are open to international students as long as you're enrolled at an accredited institution. The Amazon Future Engineer Scholarship, however, is specifically for students in the US, Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico. Always check the citizenship and residency requirements on the official program page before investing time in an application.

Is it a myth that you need to be at a top-ranked university to win these fellowships?

Partly. For Google's fellowship, your university nominates you, and institutions that already have active relationships with the program nominate more frequently — which does create an indirect advantage for certain schools. But NVIDIA, Meta, and Microsoft accept direct applications from students anywhere, and the 2026-2027 NVIDIA cohort has historically included researchers from institutions outside the traditional top-10 list. Research quality and a clear problem statement matter more than your school's ranking on direct-application programs.

How early should I start applying for AI scholarships?

Earlier than you think. Most PhD fellowship applications open in late summer or fall for funding that begins the following academic year. For programs requiring university nominations (like Google's), faculty need to know your work by spring — months before the application opens. For programs with January deadlines (like Amazon Future Engineer), that means November preparation at the latest. The practical answer: start building your materials and relationships at the beginning of the academic year before the one in which you need funding.

What makes a strong AI scholarship research statement?

Reviewers across these programs have said the same thing repeatedly: specificity beats ambition. A statement that names a concrete unsolved problem, explains why existing approaches fall short, and describes what your research will test is dramatically stronger than one that talks broadly about AI's potential. If you have preliminary results — even small ones — include them. They signal that you can execute, not just theorize.

Are there AI scholarships specifically for master's students?

Yes, though the field skews heavily toward undergrads and PhDs. Carnegie Mellon's Heinz College offers merit-based scholarships covering 10% to 75% of tuition for its AI Systems Management master's program. The IBM Masters Fellowship targets exceptional master's students across disciplines. International programs like DAAD (Germany) and MEXT (Japan) also fund master's-level study. The Erasmus Mundus AI scholarships cover master's degrees specifically. Search with "AI master's fellowship" alongside the standard scholarship databases for better results.