Rallpthon, an AI agent hackathon led by Korean developers and IT companies, is heading to the United States. Following Kakao Ventures, sponsors including Naver D2SF have joined the event. The expansion aims to bring together top American developers to compete in AI agent capabilities.
The developer community Team Attention will host Rallpthon simultaneously in Seoul and San Francisco on March 29, according to industry sources on Monday. Rallpthon is a hackathon built on the concept that "humans clock out and AI does the coding." Unlike traditional hackathons where participants write code themselves and have the results evaluated, contestants in this competition only present ideas and designs during the first two hours or so. AI agents then handle the actual coding work. The final products completed through this process are judged to determine the winner.
Rallpthon was able to expand beyond Korea to San Francisco, home to global big tech companies, because its first edition held in Seoul in February was a hit. At the time, AI agents from all participating teams collectively produced approximately 500,000 lines of code. The intense industry interest in this type of hackathon led to a second competition being organized in roughly a month.
The roster of sponsors has also become more impressive. In addition to Kakao Ventures and OpenAI, which backed the first event, Naver D2SF, Hangang Partners and Base Ventures have joined as sponsors. Judges for the U.S. competition include Shin Jeong-ho, a principal at Kakao Ventures, along with local developers and founders. In Korea, Lee Tae-yang, CEO of Base Ventures, and Lee Sang-hee, CEO of Sendbird Korea, are set to serve as judges.
Industry insiders say interest is high locally, with dozens of U.S.-based developers having applied to participate in Rallpthon. This is because a hackathon judged on the performance of AI agents is not a common format even in the United States. Analysts note that with AI agent development now an essential capability, the event offers an opportunity to test "harness engineering," which focuses on designing AI agents to work according to priorities and minimize hallucinations.
"Rallpthon's U.S. launch shows how fast Korea's AI transformation is moving," an industry official said. "Current and former officials from OpenAI and Naver plan to visit both the U.S. and Seoul venues."