CIQ Adds NVIDIA CUDA to Rocky Linux for Faster GPU Use

CIQ, the founding partner behind Rocky Linux, has announced a collaboration with NVIDIA that could reshape how enterprises deploy GPU-accelerated computing at scale. The company will integrate the NVIDIA CUDA Toolkit directly into its Rocky Linux offerings, creating a validated, ready-to-run environment for artificial intelligence, machine learning, and high-performance computing workloads.

The move is designed to eliminate long-standing challenges around GPU deployment, where organizations often spend weeks manually integrating and configuring CUDA libraries and drivers.

With the CUDA Toolkit natively available in Rocky Linux, users gain immediate access to NVIDIA’s optimized libraries and development tools, all fully tested and supported by CIQ. According to CIQ, this streamlines the process of bringing GPU-powered workloads into production, shrinking deployment times from weeks to minutes while ensuring compliance and reducing the risk of misconfiguration.

Gregory Kurtzer, founder and CEO of CIQ, called the partnership a “game-changer for the global HPC and AI ecosystem,” noting that Rocky Linux is seeing rapid enterprise adoption worldwide. Kurtzer argued that enterprises can now accelerate innovation without the traditional deployment hurdles, unlocking scalable GPU performance from research labs to production data centers and cloud environments.

Rocky Linux, launched in 2021 as a downstream, community-driven successor to CentOS, has quickly become a dominant force in enterprise infrastructure. Data from the Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux (EPEL) Special Interest Group shows that Rocky Linux now accounts for more than 40% of all EPEL downloads, making it the most widely adopted Enterprise Linux distribution in its category. Its inclusion as one of NVIDIA’s officially supported Enterprise Linux platforms further strengthens its position as the operating system of choice for GPU-accelerated environments.

Enterprises Embracing AI

Bjorn Hovland, chief operating officer at CIQ, emphasized the operational efficiency gains, stating that Rocky Linux with CUDA “delivers GPU-ready infrastructure out of the box, eliminating deployment complexity and helping customers achieve maximum performance from day one.” The integration is expected to be particularly impactful for organizations training large language models, running inference pipelines, or conducting complex simulations across sectors like finance, energy, and life sciences.

Industry partners have also endorsed the collaboration. Ansys, a leader in engineering simulation software, praised the move as a major enabler for joint customers, citing faster onboarding and optimized GPU performance as key benefits.

CIQ plans to distribute prebuilt Rocky Linux with CUDA images through its registries and major cloud marketplaces, ensuring portability, consistency, and compliance across environments. For enterprises navigating an AI-driven future, the partnership signals that Rocky Linux is not only here to stay but is fast becoming the go-to foundation for GPU-intensive workloads.