Major League Hacking (MLH) and DEV are partnering with DigitalOcean to run Hacktoberfest 2026, featuring over 300 in-person Fests and a global online event focused on open source and open-weight AI. DEV and MLH have long supported Hacktoberfest, and this marks their first full partnership with DigitalOcean. Historically, Hacktoberfest, which began in 2014, encouraged developers to make four pull requests to earn a t-shirt, opening the door to open source for many. However, the PR-counting format led to maintainer burnout from low-effort contributions, a problem exacerbated by AI. This year, Hacktoberfest will shift its focus from PR counts to empowering participants to learn, experiment, and build with open AI. The initiative aims to provide tools and knowledge for activities like writing open-source skills.md, building agents, or fine-tuning open-weight models. The organizers believe open innovation in AI is crucial for transparency and resilience in a rapidly changing technological landscape. Hacktoberfest 2026 aims to meet participants at any stage of their open-source AI journey, emphasizing that AI belongs to everyone. MLH and DigitalOcean are actively seeking hosts for the 300+ in-person Fests, providing swag, programming support, and promotion. Hosts can be meetup groups, university clubs, or even small groups of colleagues, with bonus funding available for Hacktoberfest Hack Days. Those not organizing can join a Fest, sign up for notifications about local events, or participate in the global online event. Companies can also sponsor Hacktoberfest to engage with a global community of software creators.