CIQ is the leading Enterprise Linux provider licensed to include NVIDIA CUDA in all AI and HPC stacks built on CIQ's optimized version of Rocky Linux.
RENO, Nev., Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- CIQ, the founding support and services partner of Rocky Linux and a leader in high-performance software infrastructure, today announced it is collaborating with NVIDIA to integrate the NVIDIA CUDA Toolkit within its commercial offerings. This collaboration transforms how the entire industry can access and operationalize GPU acceleration, delivering ready-to-run environments that dramatically reduce complexity, risk, and time-to-value for all performance computing workloads, including AI, machine learning, and HPC.
NVIDIA CUDA is NVIDIA's accelerated computing platform and programming model that powers major AI and scientific computing breakthroughs. The CUDA Toolkit includes NVIDIA's optimized libraries and development tools used to develop and deploy NVIDIA accelerated workloads. Through this native integration, CIQ delivers approved, professionally supported solutions built upon NVIDIA's capabilities, providing enterprises with immediate GPU acceleration while maintaining licensing compliance.
"This partnership is a game-changer for the global HPC and AI ecosystem," says Gregory Kurtzer, Founder and CEO of CIQ. "By integrating native NVIDIA CUDA support into Rocky Linux, we eliminate deployment risks and dramatically cut time-to-production from weeks to minutes. As Rocky Linux sees rapid enterprise adoption worldwide, this collaboration enables faster innovation and reliable GPU performance at scale, from the lab to the data center to the cloud."
Rocky Linux has established itself as the leading distribution in the Enterprise Linux segment and is prominently featured among NVIDIA's officially supported Enterprise Linux distributions. According to metrics tracked by the Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux (EPEL) Special Interest Group, Rocky Linux dominates the Enterprise Linux market, capturing more than 40% of all EPEL downloads despite launching just over three years ago in 2021. This widespread uptake, combined with NVIDIA's comprehensive support and testing commitment, positions Rocky Linux as the premier platform for GPU-accelerated computing environments.
CIQ's Rocky Linux platform, enabled with CUDA, addresses critical deployment challenges by providing a fully tested, validated, and optimized stack available immediately. This eliminates the need for manual installations or custom integrations that traditionally create deployment delays and misconfiguration risks. Organizations can now unlock the full performance of NVIDIA accelerated computing from development to production, whether training large language models, running inference pipelines, or executing advanced scientific simulations.
By removing the technical friction and time delay associated with GPU software deployment, CIQ's Rocky Linux platform with CUDA reduces the risk of misconfiguration and accelerates time-to-value for commercial AI deployments. The entire stack is tested, validated, and optimized, shrinking time-to-deployment from weeks to minutes. This significantly reduces the operational burden for teams deploying GPU-accelerated workloads at scale, whether training large language models (LLMs), running inference pipelines, or executing advanced scientific simulations. With a fully validated environment available out-of-the-box or at the click of the button in your favorite cloud, CIQ eliminates the need for manual installs or custom integration, unlocking the full performance of NVIDIA hardware from development to production.
"The CIQ and NVIDIA collaboration is all about empowering users," said Bjorn Hovland, Chief Operating Officer at CIQ. "By delivering GPU-ready infrastructure with Rocky Linux, we're eliminating deployment complexity and helping customers extract maximum machine performance and efficiency from day one."
The partnership has already garnered strong industry support from leading software providers.
"This integration dramatically simplifies deployment, accelerates customer onboarding, and ensures optimal performance on NVIDIA GPU-enabled infrastructure. We view this collaboration as a key enabler for our joint users and welcome continued alignment with CIQ and NVIDIA to deliver a seamless, high-performance experience," said Wim Slagter, Sr. Director Partner Programs at Ansys.
As part of this collaboration, CIQ will provide prebuilt Rocky Linux with CUDA images through its registries and major cloud marketplaces. These environments ensure consistency, portability, and compliance, streamlining deployment across the entire GPU development lifecycle for organizations in regulated and performance-critical sectors.
About CIQ
CIQ is building the next-generation secure and performant software infrastructure stack for the AI era. Founded in 2020 by open source pioneer Gregory Kurtzer, CIQ helps organizations simplify, unify, and democratize high-performance computing and enterprise IT. CIQ is the founding support and services partner of Rocky Linux and the creator of products like Fuzzball, Ascender, and Rocky Linux from CIQ. The company provides scalable, open infrastructure solutions that empower innovation—from the operating system up. Rooted in a community-first philosophy, CIQ is trusted by organizations modernizing for a future defined by data and AI. Learn more at https://ciq.com.
SOURCE CIQ
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