Red Hat Enterprise Linux for NVIDIA aims to offer a ready-to-use solution for faster and more customized open-source AI experiences.
Red Hat, a leading open-source company, and NVIDIA, a benchmark company in the new wave of artificial intelligence, have just announced an expansion in their collaboration, now focused on aligning enterprise open-source technologies with the rapid evolution of enterprise AI and advancements in rack-scale technology.
As the industry moves beyond individual servers toward high-density unified systems, Red Hat aims to provide the starting point for this transformation with Red Hat Enterprise Linux for NVIDIA, a specialized edition of the leading global enterprise Linux platform, optimized for NVIDIA. NVIDIA Ruby platform and tuned to drive future production operations on Red Hat OpenShift and Red Hat AI.
“NVIDIA’s architectural innovations have made AI imperative, proving that the computing stack will define the future of the industry,” said Matt Hicks, president and CEO of Red Hat. “To keep pace with these changes from launch, Red Hat and NVIDIA intend to offer Day 0 support for the latest NVIDIA architectures across Red Hat’s hybrid cloud and AI portfolio. Together, we are driving the next generation of enterprise AI with the power of open source,” he added.
“Red Hat revolutionized enterprise computing with high-performance open source software,” said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA. “In the age of AI, the entire computing stack is being reinvented from the ground up, including chips, systems, middleware, models, and the AI lifecycle. Together, NVIDIA and Red Hat are industrializing open source to bring AI to enterprises, starting with the NVIDIA Vera Rubin platform,” he concluded.
With 2026 approaching, many organizations are preparing to migrate AI from experimentation to production, with hierarchical strategies and centralized tools which incorporate AI agents and other advancements. This transition, however, requires a stable, high-performance, and more secure infrastructure stack, from the underlying architecture to the software running on top of it. The NVIDIA Rubin platform, with the new NVIDIA Vera CPU and advanced NVIDIA Rubin GPUs, is designed to deliver a giant leap in intelligence for agentic AI and advanced reasoning.
By optimizing its hybrid cloud portfolio for NVIDIA innovations, starting with Day 0 support for this new platform, Red Hat aims to empower organizations to scale their AI initiatives with greater confidence, delivering enterprise-grade reliability and a consistent operating model across the hybrid cloud.
The foundation for gigascale AI factories
The NVIDIA Vera Rubin platform introduces transformative innovations, including the Vera CPU, the most energy-efficient CPU for gigascale AI factories, and the data processor. BlueField-4 and the NVIDIA Vera Rubin NVL72 rack-scale solution. Today, Red Hat announces its intention to provide Day 0 support for the NVIDIA Rubin platform across the entire Red Hat AI portfolio, encompassing:
● Red Hat Enterprise LinuxIt acts as a bridge between this advanced hardware and the complex software ecosystems needed for modern AI. As a fundamental element of Red Hat's robust portfolio of hybrid cloud solutions, including Red Hat OpenShift and Red Hat AI, Red Hat Enterprise Linux will introduce support for... NVIDIA Confidential Computing throughout the AI lifecycle, offering enhanced security capabilities for GPUs, memory, and model data, as well as providing organizations with cryptographic proof that their most sensitive AI workloads maintain comprehensive protections.
● Red Hat OpenShiftRed Hat OpenShift offers NVIDIA Rubin platform customers immediate access to the industry-leading enterprise hybrid cloud platform based on Kubernetes. To automate the deployment, configuration, and lifecycle management of accelerated computing, Red Hat OpenShift adds support for NVIDIA infrastructure software and NVIDIA CUDA X libraries, delivering optimized performance for a wide range of accelerated workloads. Additionally, NVIDIA Bluefield support provides enhanced networking, advanced cluster management, and better resource utilization through a more consistent enterprise-level operational experience.
● Red Hat AIRed Hat's production-ready enterprise AI platform will include new integrations with NVIDIA, expanding support for distributed inference with NVIDIA's open-source models in Red Hat AI Inference Server, Red Hat Enterprise Linux AI, and Red Hat OpenShift AI. This includes joint efforts by Red Hat and NVIDIA to expand support beyond the NVIDIA Nemotron family to other open NVIDIA models, including those targeting computer vision, robotics, and specific vertical areas.
AI innovations delivered by the world's leading enterprise Linux platform since Day 0.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for NVIDIA remains fully aligned with the main operating system version. As improvements from Red Hat Enterprise Linux for NVIDIA are rolled out to Red Hat Enterprise Linux, customers will be able to easily transition to traditional Red Hat Enterprise Linux as needed, confident that production systems will maintain expected performance levels and application compatibility.
With this new focus, Red Hat and NVIDIA offer customers a Linux platform built for the enterprise context, ready for launch and fully compatible with the latest AI innovations at rack scale. This includes:
● Interoperability validated: Red Hat Enterprise Linux is a validated operating system for the latest NVIDIA accelerators. This helps ensure that hardware and software features work seamlessly to reduce friction in deployment.
● Optimized driver management: Organizations can access validated NVIDIA GPU OpenRM drivers and the CUDA toolkit through the Red Hat Enterprise Linux repositories, simplifying the management of the AI infrastructure lifecycle.
● Enhanced safety posture: Red Hat Enterprise Linux provides a robust foundation with features such as SELinux and proactive vulnerability management, essential for protecting sensitive data in AI training and inference environments.
● Consistency in the hybrid cloud: Whether on-premises, at the edge, or in the public cloud, Red Hat Enterprise Linux offers a unified platform for NVIDIA accelerated computing infrastructure, reducing infrastructure silos and lowering the total cost of ownership.
● The industry's largest commercial open source ecosystem: Red Hat Enterprise Linux is supported by a broad ecosystem of software, hardware, and cloud vendors, allowing for greater freedom of choice and deeper capabilities in hybrid cloud environments.
Availability
Red Hat Enterprise Linux support for the NVIDIA Vera Rubin platform will coincide with its general availability in the second half of 2026. Customers will be able to access the latest drivers and integration tools through the Red Hat Customer Portal.
About Red Hat
THE Red Hat Red Hat, Inc. is a leader in open hybrid cloud technology, providing a trusted, consistent, and comprehensive foundation for transformative innovation in IT and artificial intelligence (AI) applications. Its portfolio of cloud, development, AI, Linux, and automation technologies enables the deployment of any application, anywhere, from the data center to the edge. As the world’s leading provider of enterprise open source software solutions, Red Hat invests in open ecosystems and communities to solve tomorrow’s IT challenges. Through collaboration, Red Hat helps customers and partners build, connect, automate, secure, and manage their IT environments, supported by consulting, training, and certification services. recognized worldwide.
