Red Hat and NVIDIA Expand Partnership to Align on Next-Gen AI Infrastructure
•February 9, 2026
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Companies Mentioned
Red Hat
NVIDIA
NVDA
Why It Matters
The alliance fast‑tracks enterprise adoption of next‑generation AI infrastructure, giving customers a proven open‑source stack that can immediately leverage NVIDIA’s breakthrough hardware. This reduces integration risk and speeds AI‑driven business transformation.
Key Takeaways
- •Red Hat launches RHEL edition optimized for NVIDIA Rubin
- •Day 0 support covers Vera CPU, Rubin GPUs, BlueField‑4
- •Integration spans RHEL, OpenShift, Red Hat AI platforms
- •Targeted for rack‑scale AI deployments in hybrid cloud
- •General availability slated for H2 2026
Pulse Analysis
The AI hardware landscape is shifting from isolated servers to dense, rack‑scale systems that demand a unified software foundation. Red Hat’s open‑source pedigree positions it as a natural partner for NVIDIA’s Rubin platform, which combines the power‑efficient Vera CPU with high‑throughput GPUs and a BlueField‑4 data processor. By delivering Day 0 support, Red Hat ensures that enterprises can run workloads on the newest silicon from day one, avoiding the typical lag between hardware release and software readiness.
NVIDIA’s Rubin platform is engineered for “agentic” AI and advanced reasoning, promising dramatic gains in inference speed and training efficiency. The Vera CPU’s low power envelope and the NVL72 rack‑scale solution enable hyperscale AI factories while keeping operational costs in check. Red Hat’s integration of this hardware into its flagship products—RHEL, OpenShift, and Red Hat AI—creates a seamless stack that abstracts hardware complexity, delivering consistent performance across on‑premise, edge, and public cloud environments.
For businesses, the partnership translates into a faster path from prototype to production. Companies can leverage Red Hat’s enterprise‑grade security, lifecycle management, and Kubernetes‑driven orchestration while tapping NVIDIA’s cutting‑edge accelerators. This reduces time‑to‑market for AI‑centric services and strengthens competitive positioning in sectors such as finance, healthcare, and manufacturing. With Rubin’s general availability slated for H2 2026, early adopters will gain a strategic advantage, while the broader market benefits from a proven, open‑source AI infrastructure roadmap.
Red Hat and NVIDIA Expand Partnership to Align on Next-Gen AI Infrastructure
Red Hat expands collaboration with NVIDIA to accelerate enterprise AI
Red Hat, a leading provider of open source solutions, is expanding its collaboration with NVIDIA to align enterprise open source technologies to enterprise AI evolution and rack‑scale AI advances.
As the industry moves beyond individual servers toward unified, high‑density systems, Red Hat aims to deliver the starting point for this transformation with Red Hat Enterprise Linux for NVIDIA, a specialized edition of the world’s leading enterprise Linux platform that is optimized for the NVIDIA Rubin platform and tuned to drive future production on Red Hat OpenShift and Red Hat AI, the company said.
“NVIDIA's architectural breakthroughs have made AI an imperative, proving that the computing stack will define the industry’s future,” said Matt Hicks, president and CEO, Red Hat. “To meet these tectonic shifts at launch, Red Hat and NVIDIA aim to provide Day 0 support for the latest NVIDIA architectures across Red Hat’s hybrid cloud and AI portfolios. Together, we are fueling the next generation of enterprise AI through the power of open source.”
The NVIDIA Rubin platform, featuring the new NVIDIA Vera CPU and advanced NVIDIA Rubin GPUs, is designed to deliver a giant leap forward in intelligence for agentic AI and advanced reasoning. With Red Hat optimizing its hybrid cloud portfolio for NVIDIA’s breakthroughs, starting with Day 0 support for this new platform, Red Hat intends to empower organizations to scale their AI initiatives more confidently, with enterprise‑grade reliability and a consistent operational model across the hybrid cloud.
“Red Hat revolutionized enterprise computing with industrial‑strength open‑source software,” said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO, NVIDIA. “In the age of AI, the entire computing stack—from chips and systems to middleware, models, and the AI lifecycle—is being reinvented from the ground up. Together, NVIDIA and Red Hat are industrializing open source to bring AI to the enterprise, starting with the Vera Rubin platform.”
The NVIDIA Vera Rubin platform introduces transformative innovations, including the Vera CPU, the most power‑efficient CPU for gigascale AI factories, the BlueField‑4 data processor, as well as the NVIDIA Vera Rubin NVL72 rack‑scale solution.
Additionally, Red Hat is announcing its intention to deliver Day 0 support for the NVIDIA Rubin platform across the Red Hat AI portfolio, encompassing:
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Red Hat Enterprise Linux – serves as a bridge between this advanced hardware and the complex software ecosystems required for modern AI.
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Red Hat OpenShift – provides NVIDIA Rubin platform customers with ready access to the industry’s leading enterprise hybrid cloud platform powered by Kubernetes.
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Red Hat AI – Red Hat’s production‑ready enterprise AI platform will add new integrations with NVIDIA, expanding support for distributed inference with NVIDIA’s open‑source models on Red Hat AI Inference Server, Red Hat Enterprise Linux AI, and Red Hat OpenShift AI.
Red Hat is introducing Red Hat Enterprise Linux for NVIDIA, a new edition of the world’s leading enterprise Linux platform that incorporates the latest NVIDIA platform advancements at launch.
In collaboration with NVIDIA, Red Hat Enterprise Linux for NVIDIA will support the platform features of the latest NVIDIA architectures on Day 0 of availability, starting with the NVIDIA Rubin platform.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for NVIDIA remains fully aligned with the main build of the operating system. As improvements from Red Hat Enterprise Linux for NVIDIA make their way into Red Hat Enterprise Linux, customers will be able to easily transition to the traditional Red Hat Enterprise Linux as their specific production demands require, with the confidence that production systems will maintain expected performance levels and application compatibility.
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.
For more information about this news, visit www.redhat.com.
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